VIDEO: She Was Bullied for Her Skin Tone, but Now She’s a Model

Khoudia Diop is only 19 years of age but she has already accomplished more than others in a lifetime. Her entire childhood she was bullied because of her skin tone which was a lot darker than most people’s. But she didn’t give up on her dreams.
She wanted to be a model and she became one. And a pretty good one at that. Her Instagram is filled with people that really love her look and she has truly become a “melanin goddess”.

Read Khoudia’s full story below, provided by Daily Mail.

A black model who has taken Instagram by storm said she was bullied growing up because of her skin color.
Khoudia Diop, 19, who also calls herself ‘Melanin Goddess’, said she was ‘teased a lot’ growing up and still gets negative comments online now.
The Senegalese rising star, who lives in New York, told Daily Mail Online that she used to face up to bullies by confronting them but now she prefers to ‘not pay attention’ to negativity and focuses on learning to ‘love myself more every day’.
Khoudia, who has more than 220,000 followers on Instagram, many accumulated in recent weeks, was born in Senegal and moved to France when she was 15.
She said: ‘I was teased a lot growing up, because of my skin tone. By other kids, and now even online sometimes, people will make comments.
‘Growing up, I faced it by confronting the bullies. As I grew, I learned to love myself more every day, and not pay attention to the negative people, which helped a lot.’
She said the reason behind her nickname, which makes reference to the pigment that gives people their skin tone, is to encourage people to be confident in themselves.
‘Because of my dark, melanin rich complexion and because I want to inspire young girls and let them know that we are all goddesses inside and out. How you look doesn’t matter as long as you feel beautiful inside.’
Khoudia, who started modelling just two years ago when she was 17, said she wants to change beauty industry perceptions of ‘beauty’ by encouraging people to be confident in the way they look.
She wrote on Facebook: ‘One of my goals is to make all my dark-skinned sisters out there laugh at those with their “beauty standards” they’re nobody to tell you how you should look. Start glowing queen.’
Khoudia has inspired thousands of people around the world with her striking looks and inner strength.
More diversity is needed on catwalks, she said. Adding: ‘We need more women of color in fashion period.’
In terms of the future, she said ‘the sky’s the limit’ and that she would like to help inspire and empower young black women.
Khoudia recently shared a screengrab of an interview in which she was quoted saying: ‘They nicknamed me darky, daughter of the night.’
She wrote in the caption: ‘Bullies use to come with all kind of names thinking I’ll feel bad about my color well guess what I loved them all and showed them how much I didn’t care about what they think. ‘

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