Lupita Nyong’o is adding author to her growing list of accomplishments.

 

The Oscar winning actress has written a children’s book titled Sulwe, due out in January 2019 from powerhouse book publisher Simon & Schuster. It is a picture book centered around a 5-year-old Kenyan girl named Sulwe (which means “star” in Nyong’o’s native language), who is the darkest-skinned member of her family and wants to lighten her skin. But words of wisdom from her mother eventually help Sulwe to look at the idea of beauty from a new perspective.

 

Nyong’o broke the news on Instagram writing, “I am pleased to reveal that I have written a children’s book! … Sulwe is a dark skinned girl who goes on a starry-eyed adventure, and awakens with a reimagined sense of beauty. She encounters lessons that we learn as children and spend our lives unlearning. This is a story for little ones, but no matter the age I hope it serves as an inspiration for everyone to walk with joy in their own skin.”

 

Nyong’o has long been an outspoken champion of embracing one’s natural beauty and breaking past society’s “conventional beauty standards”. She has also spoken about her own difficulties learning self-love and the importance of representation from her own days as a youth to her Hollywood journey today.

 

In 2017 she called out Evening Standard magazine for photoshopping her natural hair on its cover. “As I have made clear so often in the past with every fiber of my being, I embrace my natural heritage and despite having grown up thinking light skin and straight, silky hair were the standards of beauty, I now know that my dark skin and kinky, coily hair are beautiful too. Being featured on the cover of a magazine fulfills me as it is an opportunity to show other dark, kinky-haired people, and particularly our children, that they are beautiful just the way they are.”

 

And now through Suwle, Nyong’o will be able to further her message planting positive seeds of self-love and self-worth in young black girls around the globe letting them know they are already stars. And that is the definition of repping The Culture.

 

 

Written by @TalentedMrFord

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