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2023 Vanity Fair Oscar Party - Arrivals

Jodie Turner-Smith at the 2023 Vanity Fair Oscar Party held at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on March 12, 2023, in Beverly Hills, California. | Source: Alberto Rodriguez / Getty

Jodie Turner-Smith is doing her part to help dismantle mental barriers when it comes to skin color.

The British actress recently explained how her personal opinions on the matter have shifted significantly since she’s been married and became a mother.

In an interview with Elle UK that was published on Monday, Turner-Smith said that having a biracial daughter has helped her confront the issue of colorism in ways she previously never imagined.

Saying she had previously expected to get married and “have Black babies,” her marriage to actor Joshua Jackson in 2019 and the birth of their daughter in 2020 changed all of that quickly.

Jackson is white.

“I wanted to have Black babies so that I could affirm them as children with the love that I felt I needed to have been affirmed with by the outside world,” Turner-Smith said. “Then I fell in love with my husband and we talked about having kids.”

2023 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Radhika Jones - Arrivals

Jodie Turner-Smith and Joshua Jackson attend the 2023 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Radhika Jones at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on March 12, 2023, in Beverly Hills, California. | Source: Lionel Hahn / Getty

Turner-Smith admitted she briefly flirted with having second thoughts about having a child with a white person based on her own personal experiences.

“To decide not to have a child with somebody you love, just because they’re white, was insane to me,” Turner-Smith continued. “But, at the same time, I did have this mini pause, where I was like, ‘She’s going to be walking through the world not only having an experience that I did not have, but looking like people that, in a way, I’d always felt a little bit tormented by.’ Now that I’ve got this little, tiny, light-skinned boss, I feel like it’s the universe teaching me lessons. I’ve been given a daughter who looks this way to heal my own conversations around colourism.”

Turner-Smith has previously discussed her struggles with colorism.

In 2019, while promoting her hit film, Queen and Slim, Turner-Smith opened up about how long it took her to be comfortable in her own skin.

In an Instagram post featuring a photo of her when she was 17, Turner-Smith took some time to reflect on her journey confronting colorism. In particular, Turner-Smith said that she “hated” her “dark skin that made people call me ugly” when she was younger.

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! 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. 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 wrote to thousands of fans.

SEE ALSO:

‘You Know I’m Black, Right?’ The Horrifying Things White People Feel Comfortable Telling This African American Woman

‘We Fell Short’: Lin-Manuel Miranda Apologizes For ‘In The Heights’ Colorism, Erasure

Too Light Skinned? Colorism Debate Reignites Over ‘Black-Ish’ Creator’s New ‘#blackAF’ TV Show
Colorism Debate Reignites Over 'Black-Ish' Creator's New '#blackAF' TV Show
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