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Rise Up

"I grew up in a society where beauty was defined in terms of Snow White and Marilyn Monroe. Where my hair was an anomaly and my heritage a curiosity. I was called dumb for speaking my mother tongue, laughed at for celebrating my culture and had my home decorated with red spray painted n*****.

Dark girls have to dig deep to find their beauty. And so the magic is not in the black. The magic is in rising in a world that tries to bury you. In soaring though they tried to clip your wings.

#blackgirlmagic"

- Inemesit Essien Graham

Photographed yesterday in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

Assisted by: Nathalie Heiberg-Harrison

Studio: Samantha Jordan + Angela Gzowski's Studio 867

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Uploaded on October 23, 2016
Taken on October 22, 2016