Grazia Photoshopped Lupita Nyong’o Natural Hair + She is Not Happy

The African actress was featured on the cover of the November issue for the British publication, as she promotes her latest film Black Panther.

The actress was sporting a low ponytail on the cover, until Grazia edited a shaved look onto the star. The action was in poor taste as it was a slap in the face to Lupita’s natural hair, and every other girl of African heritage who have this same type of hair as well.

As I have made clear so often in the past with every fiber of my being, I embrace my natural heritage and despite having grown up thinking light skin and straight, silky hair were the standards of beauty, I now know that my dark skin and kinky, coily hair are beautiful too. Being featured on the cover of a magazine fulfills me as it is an opportunity to show other dark, kinky-haired people, and particularly our children, that they are beautiful just the way they are. I am disappointed that @graziauk invited me to be on their cover and then edited out and smoothed my hair to fit their notion of what beautiful hair looks like. Had I been consulted, I would have explained that I cannot support or condone the omission of what is my native heritage with the intention that they appreciate that there is still a very long way to go to combat the unconscious prejudice against black women’s complexion, hair style and texture. #dtmh

A post shared by Lupita Nyong’o (@lupitanyongo) on Nov 9, 2017 at 6:11pm PST

“I am disappointed that @graziauk invited me to be on their cover and then edited out and smoothed my hair to fit their notion of what beautiful hair looks like. Had I been consulted, I would have explained that I cannot support or condone the omission of what is my native heritage with the intention that they appreciate that there is still a very long way to go to combat the unconscious prejudice against black women’s complexion, hair style and texture,” Lupita wrote in her lengthy Instagram post.

Grazia released a follow up statement on Instagram, stating that they made no editorial request to change Lupita’s hair in the final edit. They did not mention who was responsible for the change, or any actions to prevent this in the future.

A post shared by Grazia UK (@graziauk) on Nov 10, 2017 at 5:06am PST

Keep up with Lupita on social media:

Instagram: @lupitanyongo

Twitter: @Lupita_Nyongo

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

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