In Nigeria, light-skinned women are placed on a high pedestal. Nigeria loves and appreciates its light-skinned women. Like the caste system in India, which grants privilege based on skin tone, Nigeria appears to be experiencing the same situation in a country where we all wear African hair. For the past 8 years, Nigerian comedians and social media influencers have consistently talked about the "light skin trend" among Nigerian millennials to intensify the stigma that has accumulated in the 20 years leading up to 2010. The formula "laiskin" is now a colloquialism of light-hearted importance. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original EssayWhen I went to Nigeria last summer, you can barely walk 100 feet a day in a big Nigerian city without seeing a fake light-skinned person. Of the 30 light-skinned Nigerians you encounter every day, your mind fixates on at least 10 to examine for evidence of bleaching and “color blocking” on body parts; the obvious discoloration between body colors with the facial colors turning red while the body remains yellow or ivory. Personally, I didn't feel the need to go lighter, but I certainly don't want to go darker. Like so many Nigerian girls and women, I found myself avoiding the sun as much as possible, a habit that continued into my early adulthood. My older sister has very light skin, and as she grew up, it was obvious how both men and women were excited about her. Somewhere deep in my head, I too had equated lighter skin tone with beauty. When I turned twenty, I began to question beauty standards and those ideals began to lose their power. Yet, despite all the work I've done to embrace my natural color, when I walk into a salon to get my eyebrows waxed, someone inevitably recommends a product that, as they say, "enhances my glow." The global skin lightening industry is estimated to be worth several billion dollars. In Africa, Nigeria is the largest consumer of skin lightening products. While there isn't much data on the use of skin lightening products around the world, a report from the World Health Organization states that 77% of Nigerian women use them regularly. Countries like Togo, South Africa and Senegal are not far behind. Skin lightening, however, is not limited to Africa. In 2017, Asia-Pacific accounted for more than half of the global skin lightening products market, with China accounting for about 40% of sales, Japan 21% and Korea 18%, according to Future Market Insights. . There's no documented history of when skin whitening took off, but Yaba Blay, who teaches black body politics and gender politics at North Carolina Central University, believes it all started when African countries gained their independence. In a 2018 interview with the online publication Byrdie, Blay says that white women have historically used their whiteness as a way to communicate purity. This belief was adapted to Africa, and around the time of independence, skin lightening began to “explode.” Fashion photographers have very little power to change the status quo because clients usually insist on using lighter-skinned women to market their products. And the images created by the advertising industry in Nigeria often do not represent the audiences they are trying to communicate with. This thinking also extends to children's products, with i.