Remember when our big sister Riri launched Fenty beauty leaving most people gushing over the wide range of foundations and that trophy wife thing for a long time? According to YouTubers in the abroad (LOL awa naira cannot buy nada) the products are perfect.
But let’s take a step back.
While I was in the university, one of my closest friends was fat. I used to listen to all the ridiculous things people said to her – people were always advising her on what to eat, slim tea to drink and whatnot.
She had always been fat, that’s how she was born. Maybe early diet would have helped but she had always been a fat person and people assumed she ate all the time. It was I, who lived close to her that knew how much she suffered. She starved herself, always eating vegetables and drinking those horrible teas, exercising and forever trying to lose weight but immediately she stepped out the door, somebody would make a snide comment. She’s one of the nicest people I know.
Another friend recently started the keto diet because fat was creeping in on her. Two days into the diet, I returned home from work to find my usually enthusiastic bubbly friend curled up on the bed looking devastated. I was scared. I thought something bad had happened. But then she told me she just felt sick so we blamed it on the weather.
To cheer her up, forgetting she was on a diet, I offered her a huge chunk of cake I had in my bag – a colleague had celebrated her birthday in the office and because I am lactose intolerant I couldn’t eat the cake but instead of refusing it I decided to take it home to my friend (African mum startup kit).
So, when I offered her the cake she said ‘ahnnn I am on a diet now,’ I apologised and decided to take my cake back, but she grabbed the cake and ate a slice, then ate some more until she finished the cake and voila light came into my friends eyes. She literally sprang up from the bed, bouncing around, made her dinner and was visibly bubbly again. So it was food that was ‘sicking’ her?
I recently added more than a bit of weight. Yes, I was surprised too but all the egusi and eba I have been eating at 11 pm had to manifest somehow. One morning, I put on my favourite pair of trousers and I couldn’t zip it. Wow I thought, just wow. So I stopped eating late, I went back to drinking more water, walking in the morning and generally cut down on sweet stuff. It was so easy for me. I have never had issues with my weight. I have always been thin. I don’t even like eating that much in the first place so saying goodbye to those extra things was nothing. In less than one week, my stomach was back to its flat state. My abs are returning, but is it so easy for every other person?
I know some people will say it’s because I am skinny so it’s easy for me to say this but I have suffered from people’s bad mouth, too. One Sunday in church, an usher looked at me from head to toe – with the red weave I had on, the make up on my face – and asked me to go join children in the gallery section.
That was just regular; I got called names all through my life. I wished I was curvier, I had bigger ‘assets’, I was taller but overtime I embraced all my edges and even want to stay thin if I can. We are all diverse, unique and beautiful. Everyone cannot be the stereotyped figure 8, Vogue front page looking woman.
People are making money off the insecurity they created for women, from the make-up industry, to plastic surgery, to those selling those bodycon things. Not saying it is wrong to subscribe to all those, I personally enjoy the transformation make-up gives but am I happy with the woman in the mirror at night with a clean bare face? This is what I think we should aim for. Self-love – curves, edges, fat, big stomach, love yourself first then go on a HEALTHY diet if you have to. Please, don’t starve yourselves, don’t eat only vegetables because your body needs the other types of food. A healthy diet with exercise should help you get the desired body shape you want. I am not an expert o. Just saying, life is short you can’t be starving yourself. Whoever doesn’t like how you are can go and hug transformer.
Yes, so back to Aunty Riri’s Fenty beauty- my shade of foundation is 440, the lipgloss is for everybody. I think you guys get what I am saying. Thanks and god bless.