Society has to back off drawing up stereotypes

I love being a woman it’s beautiful amazing, empowering and our capabilities are endless. Being a ‘black’ woman in society can be a struggle, disempowering and like a battle, a battle in schools, work life and even relationships.

It’s this constant feeling of having to prove ourselves to be equal, talented, beautiful or educated.

When I was a little girl that’s exactly what I saw myself as, a little girl. As a child you don’t see colour.

That changed in primary school, it was time to cast for Peter Pan. I had my eye on the role of Wendy or the fairy – I was a pretty good little actress – but I lost out to Rosie and Eva with their blonde hair and blue eyes.

The teacher stood there in a sympathetic way setting me up for life and said “That’s not suited to you Sharlie, you’ll make an amazing bear you’d be so funny”.

Funny thing is that kind of stuck with me people would say I’m the ‘funny one’, but that’s not all I’m educated and beautiful how about that!

I must say I feel change is happening of lately, I see black Jesus in nativity plays and younger black girls being picked to play princesses.

I’m passionate about becoming a screen writer to write roles for women of colour to write lead roles for all women. But also to write educational stories.

As I got older, I soon realised I wasn’t just a woman, I am a black woman.

It meant I couldn’t say the same as somebody else, I couldn’t do as well as somebody else, my passion may be seen as aggressive, I may be seen as intimidating for voicing my opinion, I may be seen as having a chip on my shoulder, when I simply disagree. It meant I may have to work twice as hard to be less successful. So much for equal rights, freedom of speech and humanity.

On a whole I’ve been lucky/blessed enough to be in environments where my talents have been recognised first, and I have been empowered to deliver the best version of me.

Society needs to change how it views black women, I actually thought we were on our way, then I tuned in to hear this debate about Serena Williams and she’s been described by some big media organisations as an angry woman who had a crazy outburst. It’s a typical stereotype of a black woman we need to move away from this.

I look at how celebrities take on styles from Afro Caribbean and African cultures and I’m personally fine with seeing Kim Kardashian rock some cornrows, embrace it just, appreciate its background.

Times have changed, I was doing research recently and came across, Sara Barton, her body was seen an outrage, the big booty, thick thighs and plump lips. Now people are at the bank requesting loans to look like Kim Kardashian but the history is a black woman’s body.

My point is, don’t judge a black woman for who you think we are, get to know and understand the person.

Black women are beautiful, as are all other races.

Oh one thing to Disney and Pixel, we are all patiently waiting for a new young black beautiful princess and prince who can relate to our daughters’ and sons’ hair, nose and rhythm.