I think it is no secret that even today in 2023, colourism and texturism is still a major problem in our world and in Hollywood. While there have been important strides of progress with movies and TV shows such as Black Panther, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ms. Marvel, Encanto, and Moon Girl and The Devil Dinosaur. Colorism is still a major problem, even today. Colorism is defined as "prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group." Colorism benefits people with lighter skin tones. It negatively impacts people with darker skin tones. It especially affects dark-skinned women of color. As a society, we have been socially conditioned to believe that dark skin is masculine, aggressive, and less attractive compared to lighter skin tones. According to Colorism: A Darker Shade of Pale (University of Maryland), "A strong perception within the African-American community is that in America lighter skinned Blacks have an... easier time and are more likely to succeed than darker skinned Blacks." Colorism is ingrained in all of us. Everybody, even people of color, have these implicit, internalized biases. Colorism has led to poor choices like giving the first Black Disney princess, Tiana, pale, light brown skin, eurocentric features, and looser curls in Ralph Breaks the Internet. Thankfully, you changed it and gave her back her beautiful dark Black skin and afrocentric features because of Black activists speaking out against the colorist version of our beautiful dark-skinned Black princess. Afrocentric features are feminine and beautiful. Dark skinned women of color are so beautiful and they need representation. Like I said, colorism is alive and still affecting so many dark-skinned people of color and women of color. According to Colorism: a Darker Shade of Pale, "Law professor, Cheryl Harris, writes about her grandmother, a light skinned black woman, who used her white skin to secure a better paying job to support her family. By passing for white, hiding her non-white ancestry, and capitalizing off her European features, Harrison's grandmother improved her economic situation. Professor Harris uses this example to illustrate how her grandmother's skin color was used as a proxy for race concluding that whites continue to have property interest in their white skin because it confers certain economic privileges denied to those whose skin is not white. Yet, Harris' example demonstrates  implicitly that... light skinned blacks also receive special privileges." Thankfully, colorism was not a problem in Disney's Encanto which showed a beautiful rainbow of skin tones. Dark-skinned Latinos and Afro-Latinos were not excluded from the narrative. There were characters like Antonio, Felix, Delores, and Isabella. It was wonderful. According to Colorism Healing, "Dark-skinned girls who internalize colorism will perceive themselves as unattractive or less attractive than others. That distinction is important. Not every girl who internalizes colorism will see herself as ugly, but she may rate her beauty below others with more eurocentric features." This is why dark-skinned women of color princesses, superheroes, wizards, witches, faries, and mermaids are so important. Representation done right is truly powerful! A lot of our self worth and feeling validated comes from seeing characters that look like us. Sadly, colorism  is still a prevalent problem and it is still making dark-skinned women of color feel bad about themselves. According to Colorism Healing, "Dark-skinned girls who internalize colorism in this way may express it with statements like: “I’m so ugly,” “I wish I was pretty like that,” “I don’t like my nose,” “I wish I had good hair,” “I wish I was light-skinned,” “I’d be cute if I wasn’t so dark,” or “I’m too dark to wear loud colors.” But beyond verbally expressing it, they may exhibit certain behaviors, like avoiding the sun, avoiding certain colors, covering up their mirrors, wearing lighter shades of make up, bleaching their skin, wearing colored contacts, etc. They may also straighten their hair because they are constantly being told that their hair is ugly, unkept, messy, and unproffesional. This is not true because natural hair is beautiful. 4C natural hair is beautiful. Moon Girl and The Devil Dinosaur did a great job covering the topic of natural hair. One of the best quotes to come from the show is "To love your hair, is to love yourself." The show was funny, entertaining, and had a lot of dark-skinned Black girl and dark-skinned women of color magic. Lastly, I must also note that this can manifest not just in how they treat themselves or speak about themselves. Dark-skinned women dealing with internalized colorism will also criticize other women who look like them or who are darker than them, while also lavishing light-skinned, mixed-race, or non-Black women with compliments." Good movies with dark-skinned princesses with accurate features can make all the difference because after all dark-skinned women of color matter!!! 

Disney, is there any way that you could make more dark-skinned brown and Black princesses? After all, Disney is so magical and special and I am sure that you could spare some of the magic for the dark-skinned girls! Right?