Since the dawn of time, humans have been different from one another in drastically different ways. There's the popular saying, "everybody's different," and that could not be more true. People vary from one another in so many different categories- personalities, likes, dislikes, appearances, everything. One of the most noticeable and most mentioned difference between people is the variations in appearance from one person to another. This makes complete sense, we all come from different parts of the world, grow up differently, come from different people.
Personally, I've got Irish and Italian roots through and through. Looking at me, you would probably never think "that girl is definitely Italian" due to my fair skin, reddish brown hair, freckles, and green eyes. I am totally okay with the fact that I don't look Italian, rather more Irish. However, people seem to enjoy pointing out how fair skinned I am, as if I'm unaware. Now, it's not the sheer fact of them pointing it out that bothers me, no, it's the attitude in their voice that seems to go with it.
I have been aware of my fair skin since I was born, it's nothing new to me, and it's nothing new to people around me, it's just who I am, and I'm not the only one. So, when people come up to me and compare their skin to my own to make themselves feel better about how tan they are, it doesn't exactly warm my heart. I've discussed this with many people, how it bothers me to be the esteem booster in such a negative sense for myself, yet people still hit me with the "wow you're like really pale." It's just the color of my skin, nothing I can help, nothing I'm self conscious about until someone makes a condescending remark about it.
People never approach someone with a nice golden brown tan and tell them about the color of their skin as if it's a disease and use them to make themselves feel better, so why is being pale any different? Simple answer: it's not. You're born the way you are, and we're all born the same way, we all have the same human features, I'm no different than someone with darker skin than me.
Moral of the story, don't use others to make yourself feel better. I never used to be self conscious of my skin until people started to make it sound like a bad thing. So please, stop using me to make yourself feel better, stop telling me that I'm pale, I know. You can be comfortable in your own skin without making me uncomfortable in mine.
