It has taken me a while to be able to make this post because it still upsets me till this day. If you have not heard the story already, Karyn Washington was a young activist for young brown skin girls. She started a youtube channel about two years ago trying to bring awareness to skin tone discrimination and her sole purpose was to uplift fellow brown skin women. Karyn has recently committed suicide. Her death shocked supporters all over the country who could not understand someone who seemed so strong could take their own life. This particular story has also affected me personally. As a brown skin girl, two years ago when forbrowngirls youtube channel subscribed to me I was very interested in the movement. I was a high school junior who was having a hard time being confident and was going through a mild depression. Forbrowngirls youtube channel had a slow start , it was only me and a few other who actually watched Karyn and her cousin's videos and actually put in input. I remember they would always ask for suggestions and i emailed Karyn about maybe making a video or blog post about dark skin women and makeup. Karyn replied thanking me for the suggestion and weeks later their was a post on tumblr about Dark skin makeup. I was so impressed by how all of a sudden forbrowngirls became a movement. To know I was one of the first to see the movement start was amazing. Forbrowngirls helped to build a confidence in me that I never had towards my skintone. It felt good to know there was others out there like me who had a darker skin tone and no longer wanted to be judged for it. Two years later, I am such a different person than I was. I am no longer depressed and I am in love with my skin and not a soul could tell me different lol. I knew eventually I wanted to turn this confidence into a movement as well just as Karyn did with forbrowngirls. One day I came up with the idea of collaborating with her, maybe adding to the forbrowngirls brand since it inspired me so much. About a week later she committed suicide before I could contact her. This sadden me greatly because to know I was someone who went through depression ,It hurt to know that someone I had admired so much for her work may have been going through it too. This blog ,xoxokaneica, was created to live on what she started. I want to continue to uplift brown women, women in general, through my post. Karyn Washington will always be remembered by me . RIP.
photo credit
xoxokaneica
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