Actress Beverly Naya Defines Beauty with ‘Skin’ Documentary

Actress Beverly Naya Defines Beauty with ‘Skin’ Documentary

Jonathan Eze

Nollywood actress, Beverly Naya, has produced a documentary video titled ”Skin” sponsored by Skin Nivea and premiered in Lagos at the weekend.

Beverly explained that ”Skin” is a feature documentary which inspires the meaning of beauty in all shades of life. She added that colourism affects both women and men in Africa countries but it has negatively influenced the beauty standards associated with women’s ability to find success in the society.

According to her, the documentary video is not an anti-bleaching campaign, instead the documentary seeks to inspire self-acceptance and self-love. It is about empowerment, not judgement. She added.

Beverly disclosed that the documentary video is interwoven by poignant personal accounts of individuals who have dealt with the pressure to conform to certain standards of beauty. She said: ”the effect of bleaching and colourism is a global awareness campaign that seeks to promote healthy skin, self- love and acceptance in the society.

She said: ”Colourism changes the face and outlook of society. The number of women across Africa using bleaching products has increased with 77% of them being Nigerians.

She further revealed that the documentary video is a personal journey of her hometown and the cultural heritage of her mother and grandmother in Ibusa, Delta State, where she explored the rich heritage of three generations of beautiful black women who through sheer hardwork and self- love have built useful businesses and solid legacy for her and many like her to build upon.

Beverly recalled that her discovery to inform the mind, the actions and reasons why young people bleach their skin began in 2014. This, she said prompted her to release a documentary video that would educate older adults, students in colleges, varsities and young children at home about the harmful effect of toning and lightening the black skin.

She maintained that the nature predominant in black skin supposedly makes people with dark skin color to bleach their skin.

She noted that about 70% of Nigeria women have a strong desire to lighten their complexion. The root cause is insecurity, inferiority complex and lack of acceptance.

Speaking further, she said in African context, black is seen as fetish, evil and dark. It forebodes a bad omen and that is why many persons have the feeling to be associated with a lighter skin colour which they feel will expel the thought of being called Black. To them, the dark color is restrictive while the White skin color represents Freedom.

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