Cynthia Kudji, and her daughter, Jasmine have just graduated from medical school at the same time.

Dr.  Kudji, who’s originally from Ghana, West Africa is a single mom. She put her dreams of becoming a doctor on hold when she was pregnant with her daughter at just 23-years-old, then went on to become a nurse and worked as an RN and Nurse Practitioner for almost a decade before deciding to attend medical school.

Both are now graduates of the University of Medicine and Health Sciences (UMHS) St. Kitts and Maine and Louisiana State University (LSU), respectively, with medical degrees in Family Medicine for Cynthia and General Surgery for Jasmine.

In an interview with The UMHS Endeavor, Dr Kudjie explained that she initially had no plans to enter the medical field due to a lack of representation in the field.

“I remember when we were young there were TV shows like The Cosby Show and A Different World,” she said to UMHS. “Seeing African Americans in college or being successful was like firsts. So, for me, it wasn’t like ‘Oh, yes, I want to be a physician’. It was more like, ‘Oh, no, can I really do this? Or, ‘Am I smart enough to do it?”

Dr Kydjie and her daughter definitely had challenges as nontraditional students with Jasmine having to adjust to being so far from her mother.

“I think initially it was difficult because my mom and I have always been really close so I had to get used to the distance, we had to learn how to FaceTime and Skype each other, so we were Skyping each other every day and whenever I had struggles and she had struggles, we just had to learn to communicate from a distance,” the younger Dr. Kudji said. “But I think over time we figured it out.”

They both credit the support of close family and friends in addition to faculty members.

“I always tell people we laugh together, we study together, we cry together,” said Jasmine. “I think medical school is one of those experiences that you don’t truly understand until you’re in it. Sometimes people struggle to find someone who relates to their struggles, so for that person to be my mom was extremely helpful.”

In the 1950s, Helen Williams made history in the United States when she became the first dark-skinned African-American fashion model to cross over into mainstream advertising.

Yet, it was the French who accepted her instead of the Americans who considered her to be “too dark.”

Williams would surmount the challenges that came with the color of her skin, rising to fame in Paris and New York in the late 1950s and early 1960s and paving way for other dark-skinned models.

Born in East Riverton, New Jersey in 1937, Williams studied dance, drama, and art before becoming a stylist at a New York photography studio.

There, her beauty caught the attention of Lena Horne and Sammy Davis Jr, who frequented the studio to do press shots. The two encouraged Williams, then 17, to take up fashion modeling.

And that was how she was able to break into a stereotyped industry like fashion in the 1950s, working with African-American magazines like Jet and Ebony.

But there was a problem – her dark skin color did not attract many industry folks in America, as non-white models were largely excluded from mainstream fashion. Even within the African-American modeling scene, ladies were expected to be light-skinned.

“I was too dark to be accepted,” Williams once recalled. Facing discrimination while trying to extend her career with other modeling houses, Williams moved to Paris in the 1960s, where she was embraced.

France had a different outlook on black beauty and soon enough, the African-American beauty was modeling for big fashion designers like Christian Dior and Jean Dessès.

“By the end of her tenure she was making a staggering $7,500 a year working part-time and had received three marriage proposals from her French admirers, one of whom kissed her feet and murmured, ‘I worship the ground you walk on, mademoiselle’,” writes arogundade.com

Williams later returned to America, hoping things had changed for models like her. But when she went searching for a new agent in New York City, she realized that there had not been any major change.

Told to wait two hours in the reception of one agency, she was later told that the agency already had a black model and she was not needed. Having had enough of the bias of the fashion industry, Williams took her case to the press.

Some influential media personalities took up her case, exposing the plight of black fashion models in the country and drumming home the need for change.

Eventually, the situation improved, especially for Williams, and she got booked for ads for major brands such as Loom Togs, Modess, and Budweiser.

Her rate also shot up to $100 an hour. Finally, the beautiful, talented and inspirational woman had broken the color barrier in the modeling industry. As more black models became more visible, cosmetic companies began doing a lot of research aimed at developing products for African-American women.

Retiring from modeling in 1970, Williams continued her career in fashion as a stylist. Her courage, however, paved the way for other black models like Naomi Campbell, Tyra Banks, Duckie Thot, among others.

At 25, Sinenhlanhla is the founder of Passcara and Partners Incorporated based in Durban, South Africa. Her firm focuses on family law and personal injury.

Sinenhlanhla Passcara Mthembu, completed law school and started working with a law firm but she’d always wanted to establish her own business so she quit her job and became her own boss. “It is hard based on my age. People see Law as a difficult field. It is a scary field and a man’s world but I took it as a challenge upon myself to do it.”

“I then decided that no matter what people are actually saying, I’m going for it regardless of my age and the challenges I may face,” she told Power FM.

“It was difficult from the point where I started my degree to where I am now. I don’t regret anything.” She is the only person running the law firm at the moment, according to reports.

Allow me to Introduce myself. My name is Sinenhlanhla Passcara Mthembu and I am the Founder and Director of Passcara and Partners Incorporated. I am a 25 year old and the owner of this Law Firm.
I am to Inspire. If I did it then so can you!!! #GirlsTalkZA pic.twitter.com/fIypgaqTKe

— Sne Mthembu (@Sne_Mthembu_) February 3, 2020

The journey has not been so smooth, butwent it comes to market herself. But she is positive that word-of-mouth marketing from her clients will help her.

“What is hard in our field is marketing yourself. There is a thin line between marketing and touting. Touting is like when you are asking or begging for clients,” she said. “It makes it hard to market because you don’t want to cross that thin line that the [legal] council has put for us.”

Sinenhlanhla is also a content creator at Youtube, who shares beauty tips with her followers.

After 42 years, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has become the first black woman to deliver a Commencement Day speech at the University of Pennsylvania. Since 1978, was when then-US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Patricia Harris did so.

Hello WORriors, it’s #WomanCrushWednessday, and our Woman Crush is Kemi Adetiba!

She is a multi award winning movie director, cinematographer, music and video director known for excellent work in the industry, especially the blockbuster movies, ‘The Wedding Party’ and ‘King of boys’. Her works have made appearance in places like BET, Netflix, MTV base, Sound city Tv, amongst others.

Born in Lagos on January 8, 1980,  Adetiba started her journey into the media really young where she headlined two national television commercials for the detergent brand OMO, just like her father, Dele Adetiba, a veteran in the advertising and broadcast industries who played a pivotal role in the development in Nigeria.

In 2007, with a love for storytelling, the law graduate enrolled in the New York Film Academy. Her body of work includes music videos, commercials, television content and films.

The exceptional film-maker and music video director believes the year still holds many promises’. She came out clear with her opinion known through her Twitter and Instagram handles.

She said, “ I think 2020 still has more to offer. There is no pretending it is increasingly becoming harder and harder to remain positive in these peculiar times. It is very natural to want to simply throw your hands in the air and give permission for the year to throw you anywhere and anyhow it wills.

I know it seems unfair to be forced in the position where you have to choose between hunger or health for both yourself and your family, but alas, here we are and there is no running from it.”

She sermonised that lamenting about the situation will not make it disappear, and therefore advised we give it whatever it takes to live our normal lives. “Blinking hard or “woe is me” laments will not make it disappear. But if this THING will not play fair, then neither will we. The only thing sure about LIFE is CHANGE. And as long as you have breath… There is always HOPE!!! No one would have predicted an invisible virus would come shut down the entire world for half the year. This is what you call “humbling!!” But as long as the world is still spinning, we have an obligation to keep pushing,” she added.

She prophesied that when things go wrong, it is only those who spent time warming up, preparing that will gather the most nuts in the end.

She tweeted : “I think 2020 still has more to offer. My dad once said to me “What you lose on the stretch, you gain on the curve.” I pray there is more once we round this bend.”

By Pamela Mbata

Ready or not lots of things are changing. In this age, there is an exposure to every kind of information, lifestyle, culture and almost any system of doing things. One can not, but wonder and ask how positive or not it has been.

In the world of beauty and cosmetics, a tremendous change has swept through the land. Fashion keeps recycling while bringing innovative ways of doing things. Although some of what we see today has been done in the past, but new systems are emerging. For example:

• Botox and plastic surgery, which has gained popularity amongst folks allover the world.
• Advanced makeovers, women making up didn’t start today, but it is clearly advanced if you agree because more knowledge has been figured out, with the introduction of chemical based product on the counter and synthetic usage of materials.
• Taking ‘Selfies’ was not a thing before  the early 2000’s but now it is so common and has been adopted as a norm for personal photography.

For women in particular, the pressure to keep up with what we see online has become a morbid cycle.

False representations and unrealistic standards

Tons of celebrities, influencers, models and brands, also use social media to sell and promote themselves by creating an image of perfection. They document their workout routines, eating habits, and other aspects of their lifestyle that contribute to the way they look. It can be all fake sometimes.

Whilst we may believe as we mindlessly scroll though such content, our subconscious is soaking it all up and before we know it, those perfectly formed bodies have become the standard by which we measure everything else.

Famous people and models on social media document their workout routines, eating habits, and other aspects of their lifestyle that contribute to the way they look. There is only one problem with this industry; it’s all fake.

Some have developed  mental heath issues, identity issues and even body dysmorphia trying to emulate the beauty standards that are simply unattainable.

An Instagram model can post a picture of herself in a bikini, showing off her taut stomach, holding up a weight loss tea supplement. Her caption reveals that said supplement is the secret to her honed physique.

This alone, sends a very dangerous message to millions of her followers, the majority of whom are impressionable young women.

It is spreading the idea that supplements, diet pills and detox teas are the best way to achieve her body type, when in reality, it could not be further from the truth.

More often than not, their looks are a combination of gym, plastic surgery and a generous amount of retouching.

Her job is to look perfect and promote merchandise. This creates an unrealistic beauty standard for all of her followers who believe that this product is their ticket to a perfect body.

In reality, a perfect body does not exist. An immense amount of planning, makeup and photo editing went into the final Instagram picture she posted. It’s designed to sell a product, not support a healthy lifestyle.

This leads to low self-esteem and negative thinking towards food , body acceptance and comparisons. It is incredibly important to teach young women and men that social media is not real life.

So, social media tells us that we need to be a beautiful person in order to be worthy which could not be further from the truth.

It is incredibly important to teach young women and men that social media is not real life. Trying to emulate this types of bodies can cause physical and psychological damage.