The message is clear…. POSITIVE reinforcement works and finding community works! After being bullied throughout middle school this dark skinned 10-year-old found an ally in social media who let her know the magical black girl that she is!

Chrissie from Divine Dark Skin wrote about this young lady:

After hearing the recent story about 10-year-old Kheris Pollard, I realize even more how much this platform is necessary. Kheris’s mom Erika Pollard told Buzzfeed that kids would constantly tease Kheris about her dark skin throughout grade school. She thought that transferring her to a different school with more black children would help but was confused and discouraged when Kheris continued to experience colorism from her black peers.

Kheris’s big sister Taylor tweeted out a picture of Kheris that went viral (that was ironically featured on DDS as well) and says the positive feedback from thousands of strangers on the internet has greatly helped her self-esteem. Since then, she’s opened an Instagramaccount as well and continues to post pictures of Kheris from creative photoshoots that they’ve done together. Read the rest of the story HERE.

More from DDS on this here.

This story says so much about the power of social media. It’s incredibly sad that she face abuse from her peers but at the same time amazing that a tool like social media exists for her to find a voice.