I wasn’t always the biggest Issa Rae fan — not because I didn’t find her funny, but because I didn’t always relate to her type of humor. Nonetheless, I’ve grown an affection to her, seeing how she is disrupting so many narratives in the entertainment industry while still being true to herself and how she got her start. If anything, she’s a living testament that focusing on what you bring to the table will ultimately create the best opportunity for us all.
Read on for some of my favorite snippets from her recent Essence spread, where she graced us with TWO magazine covers. The photos are beautiful, and the lessons are noteworthy:
On her upbringing and seeing colorism at a young age:
“My parents helped me and they hurt me. My mom was extremely pro-Black, and I believed her. My dad is Senegalese, and I grew up around my dark-skinned cousins and just thought that they were the most beautiful women in the world. I was surrounded by beautiful dark people. And then middle school hit, and I was like, Oh, they think I’m ugly. They think I’m big. They think I’m unattractive. I went back to my mom like, ‘What the f—k?! Y’all lied to me my whole life. What is this?!’ I started realizing, Mom, you’re light-skinned. So I don’t know what you were talking about. It’s not like you can relate to being dark. And your hair is not the same texture as mine. So what do you know about telling me I’m beautiful? Why would you lie to me? That definitely had an impact on how I saw myself.”
On what she focused on before her beauty:
“Being smart, being accomplished and being respected.”
On creating roles from the beginning:
“When you don’t have much to do or you don’t have plans on Friday night, you’re making up a character who does. That was an outlet for me. I fantasized all the time about having a different life. And that manifested in creating characters and worlds and scenarios. I’ve definitely let my imagination run free.”
And, of course, on never counting yourself out:
“I’ve definitely thought about middle school me looking through magazines and being perfectly content with the fact that my face wasn’t going to be used to sell makeup; that wasn’t my future. I just didn’t imagine that. So the fact that it happened is like, you just never f—ing know. And you should never discount anything. I think so many of us tend to be comfortable with what we’re not and complacent with what we’re not. You really don’t have to be. I didn’t solve world peace or anything—it’s not like that. But something that felt so small and intangible ended up being tangible. And that’s just the coolest thing in the world.”
To read the entire feature, head over to Essence now.
