Watch any television channel and you will find an advertisement advocating usage of some fairness cream. The girl applies the cream, and suddenly she becomes fair and all the young boys in the vicinity dream of marrying her. We don’t really think about this advertisement. Do we? Call it engineered social science but this shows our approach towards dark colored girls. Dark or wheatish complexion is not what we Indian desire.  Majority of Indian parents crave for fair complexion and try their best to change the natural skin color of daughters. But then, this way is far from perfect. The negative bias towards dark color and unusual fancy for fair complexion can have severe psychological effect on your daughter. It is a common sight to see parents taunting daughter for her tanned skin and often comparing to other fair girls. This is extremely demoralizing and can affect her self esteem dangerously.

 

Parents must tread this path with utmost care. They must ensure daughters do not feel any inferiority complex because of this particular issue which was never in their control. Take a look at top notch models. Most of them are dark-skinned. Look at any fancy magazine and you will find stories how females of western world are striving to have tanned skin. Show these stuffs to your daughter. Don’t compare her to other girls, especially with fairer ones. Take help of her friends in removing any sign of embarrassment caused because of her complexion. Parents should never ever focus too much their daughter’s looks. Focus on other aspects of her personality including academics, dance, music, literature, sports etc. Try to make her feel comfortable with her skin and remind her, dark is always beautiful.