I love Dascha Polanco, for so many different reasons. The one trait that I truly appreciate about her is how real she keeps things. It's so refreshing to see someone in Hollywood who's transparent about how important it is to fight the prevailing European beauty standards the world keeps throwing at us. Dascha is a beautiful, tanned skin, full-figured Dominican woman and she is 1000 percent unapologetic about it. But she'll also be the first to admit the pressure she's faced to hide her Afro-Latina features to score acting roles.
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The Orange Is The New Black actress has a very empowering attitude towards her body that's nothing less than inspiring. She puts her beautiful curves on display any chance she gets and refuses–I repeat–refuses to buy clothes from designers who won't dress her because of her body shape and size.
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Dascha is so over Hollywood trying to make her feel like she needs to hide her beautiful Afro-Latina features to actually land a role. She opened up to Vivala.com about the pressures she's faced to adhere to European beauty standards to make it in the biz.
"We have to be 'Fake Latinas,' " she said. "And here's the thing about 'Fake Latinas'–when you look at Latinas who are succeeding in Hollywood, they're super thin and you really can't tell if she's Latina or not."
But regardless, Dascha wears self-love and self-acceptance like it's nobody's business. And while it's so refreshing to see, it hasn't always been easy. The pressure to look like a stereotypical or "pass-for-white" Latina has been a real struggle. There was even a time when it made her question her own beauty.
"I just thought, 'Oh my God, if only I had lighter eyes. If only I had lighter hair. If only I was skinny. Oh my God, if I was a size 0, I know I would get more work. I could play an Italian right now! This is why you're not getting a job." She quickly did a 360 and has not looked back. "For [my features] to not be accepted as something that can be represented in a film or in such a way that it's acceptable, it's offensive," Polanco said. She now refuses to hide her beauty for anybody.
As a tanned skinned, curly haired, Afro-Latina-identifying Dominicana, I can absolutely relate to Dascha's experience. This is has literally been my life. I still have to defend myself when I choose to wear my hair curly. I still have to convince other Latinas that I'm just as Latina as them even though I look nothing like J.Lo or Salma Hayek. I still have to get real about beauty and diversity and why it's so important.
I shouldn't have to do this in 2017 and Dascha shouldn't have to be doing this either. None of us should. But we still have to and that's why we'll keep fighting this fight for as long as we have to because every girl deserves to see her unique beauty represented. Every single girl.
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