“I have always loved writing; ever since I can remember I have found comfort in written words. Growing up (though my tongue was well-trained in the art of sitting still) my hands were always restless: scrawling couplets in the margins of my math workbook, flipping fervently through the pages of my favorite books. Though I always felt a little out of step with my peers, I felt perfectly at home in fantasy worlds, - whether they were daydreamed, spun between the binding of the novels I so loved, or bloomed in the carefully concealed contents of my own notebooks.

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A favourite pastime of mine was to write about my life as I wished it was. In these stories, my dark hair would turn blonde, my eyes would lighten to blue, and my coloured skin would become pale. I envied – even sought out – friends with fair complexions, as if I could somehow catch the qualities that made them white. It is difficult to admit how desperately I wished I was white, but at the time it was simple to me… obvious, even: embracing whiteness was the way I would feel less out-of-step, less Othered by the world around me. I wanted whiteness the way we want water – often unconsciously, but sometimes with a painful and raw awareness.

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These days, I am still learning to worship the skin I wear. Particularly over the course of the last few months, I am learning the power of words – the words I so adoringly clung to as a child – to not reflect the world we live in, but actively create it. The words I used to turn to for comfort are lifting from the silence of the page and dancing their way into my vocal cords. Now more than ever before, I am learning the power of being vocal – the power of being an advocate, and the power of making visible the pain and confusion that comes from growing up in coloured skin before a world that privileges paleness.

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I can feel the words that used to lie quiet and docile in the corners of my notebook rising to burn on my lips. If there is anything I can pass on to a future generation, let it be this: the words we use can recreate our world. Do not underestimate their power.”