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Posted On: August 27th 2026, 12:55 pm
WHAT IS COLOURISM?
Colourism is different kind of bullying.
Colourism is prejudice or discrimination based on skin tone. It can happen within the same racial or cultural community and across communities where lighter skin may be treated as more beautiful, desirable or worthy than darker skin.
It is not only a South African issue. We see different forms of colourism in communities around the world including Black, Coloured and Indian communities in South Africa, as well as communities across Africa, India, Latin America and beyond.
Even the language we use can carry these ideas. Terms such as “yellow bone” can reinforce the belief that lighter skin is somehow more desirable.
Colourism can reach children long before they have the words to describe it.
By the teenage years, some young people are already questioning their natural skin tone and considering skin lightening because of the messages they have absorbed about beauty and acceptance.
This is one of the reasons Blossom opens this conversation.
Because what children hear, see and learn about themselves can stay with them long into adulthood.
But this conversation is not only for children.
It is for parents.
For families.
For teachers.
For communities.
And for all of us who are willing to learn, unlearn and speak about what we may once have been afraid to name.
I was fortunate to grow up in a home where I was affirmed in all the ways of my uniqueness and beauty both inside out. That affirmation taught me something I carry with me today:
Sometimes you can champion something that never wounded you because you recognise that it wounded someone else.
Blossom is my invitation to begin that conversation with love, with honesty and with the hope that every child learns to see their skin as something to celebrate and never something they need to apologise for!
🌻 Let’s talk about it.
#Colourism #SelfLove #StopBullying #Children’sBooks #BlossomTheBookLaunchingSoon
Colourism is different kind of bullying.
Colourism is prejudice or discrimination based on skin tone. It can happen within the same racial or cultural community and across communities where lighter skin may be treated as more beautiful, desirable or worthy than darker skin.
It is not only a South African issue. We see different forms of colourism in communities around the world including Black, Coloured and Indian communities in South Africa, as well as communities across Africa, India, Latin America and beyond.
Even the language we use can carry these ideas. Terms such as “yellow bone” can reinforce the belief that lighter skin is somehow more desirable.
Colourism can reach children long before they have the words to describe it.
By the teenage years, some young people are already questioning their natural skin tone and considering skin lightening because of the messages they have absorbed about beauty and acceptance.
This is one of the reasons Blossom opens this conversation.
Because what children hear, see and learn about themselves can stay with them long into adulthood.
But this conversation is not only for children.
It is for parents.
For families.
For teachers.
For communities.
And for all of us who are willing to learn, unlearn and speak about what we may once have been afraid to name.
I was fortunate to grow up in a home where I was affirmed in all the ways of my uniqueness and beauty both inside out. That affirmation taught me something I carry with me today:
Sometimes you can champion something that never wounded you because you recognise that it wounded someone else.
Blossom is my invitation to begin that conversation with love, with honesty and with the hope that every child learns to see their skin as something to celebrate and never something they need to apologise for!
🌻 Let’s talk about it.
#Colourism #SelfLove #StopBullying #Children’sBooks #BlossomTheBookLaunchingSoon
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