‘Queen & Slim’ Actress Jodie Turner-Smith Reflects On Her Glow Up: I Remember How Badly I Hated The Dark Skin That Made People Call Me Ugly

Jodie Smith

‘Queen & Slim’ Actress Jodie Turner-Smith Reflects On Her Glow Up: I Remember How Badly I Hated The Dark Skin That Made People Call Me Ugly

Jodie Tuner-Smith is a critically-acclaimed actress after her breakout role in the recent film Queen & Slim. But she’s revealing that she wasn’t always the confident Jodie Smith that we witness today.

The actress shared an old yearbook photo, from when she was 17-years-old, as well as one of her reading a newspaper with a classmate. It looks like the two of them were voted Most Likely to Succeed!

She also added a quote about the glow up.

Jodie Smith wrote,

Proof That The Glow Up Has Been Really Real  it’s been soooo long since i’ve seen these pictures, but because the internet is undefeated, i found them! a blast from the past! 

She opened up about what she was experiencing back in her days as a teenager.

” i’m humbled when i look at this girl. 17 year old me. not just because of how i look on the outside, but because i remember how i felt on the inside. i remember how badly i hated myself and hated the dark skin that made people call me ugly.

how i turned my helplessness at being unable to change my outward appearance inward, by constantly cleaving away any and all parts of myself that i was told made me unacceptable to others. “

She went on to explain that she protected herself by keeping busy and getting involved in extracurricular activities in an effort to fit in.

 “how i changed my voice, changed my hair, became captain of this and president of that, used my intelligence to build a wall around me, spent years in the practice of bending and shaping myself into the most acceptable form of Jodie for the people around me until there was nothing of me left but hate for a person i didn’t recognise and fear that i had become someone it was impossible to come back from… AND, MY GOD, IT WAS EXHAUSTING!”

She ended with an encouraging note for her fans.

“but i say all that to say this— i am grateful for the girl in these photos and for every part of this journey. because i couldn’t be me, now, if i wasn’t first her, then. when you know what it feels like to hate yourself, finally loving yourself is a freedom that cannot be matched by anyone else’s approval also worth noting— i was voted Most Likely To Succeed! but we all thought it would be in somebody’s office”

What do you think about Jodie Turner-Smith sharing her journey? Tell us in the comments.