Is Dark Beautiful?

When i was a small girl,my mom used to jokingly call me "Black girl", though she said it jokingly,i sensed a disappointment in her voice whenever she said it..

My mom and my brother were fair whereas i was a dusky and i guess not a "cute" kid. Sometimes i would ask her why she called me a "Black girl" and she would lovingly say that i was "black beauty".

The only black beauty i knew was a horse by the same name in my 4th grade lessons, which had a tragic story.

As i grew up further,my brother would constantly tease me calling me ugly,and dark. He had once even said that i was so "ugly" that even "make-up" would not help me. I don't think he meant for that remark to have any lasting impression on me,but it did.

I grew up believing myself to be dark,fat,short and ugly and not worthy. And that there was no scope for me as a woman,in a patriarchal society which believed that Dark is ugly and Fair is Beautiful.
And So, i believed that my only scope for success was to use my brains, 

But even back then, i knew that i had to prove myself as worthy,so i studied hard, I just kept studying till i joined medical school.
I never did anything to make me look or feel beautiful, no Make-up, no fair and lovely, Nothing!!
Because i believed that i am so ugly that nothing would have helped me..
But, I was wrong

So, i was surprised when, in the 1st year of my med-school, one of my classmates,another girl,told me that i was beautiful!!
ME??BEAUTIFUL?!?

At First,i thought she was just being nice to me but at the Back of my mind i was wondering if she was just teasing me, But she reassured me that i was, indeed Beautiful, not in the conventional way, But Beautiful, Nevertheless..

And, So, Over the years i have come to realize that i was, Infact, beautiful!!
Beautiful in my own way

I had realized that beauty was indeed in the eyes of the beholder

When i saw myself as beautiful,i felt beautiful,

Only if i loved me just that way i am, would i be able to appreciate myself

Beauty is not about how fair i was or how tall i was or how graceful i was,it was simply about loving myself just the way i am!!

Now,Im a dusky, short, sexy, cute and intelligent woman,who loves and appreciates me for myself.
I dont need anybodys validation for believing in Myself.

P.s - My mom loves me a lot,and years later,she confided in me that the reason she was worried about me being dark was because,darkness is associated with "lower caste",and people would know i was from a lower caste because of my skin colour.