2025 SCHOLASTIC ART & WRITING FLAUNT IT AWARD FINALIST. I was seven years old when My mother cursed me for basking in the Sun For transferring the Sun’s radiance to my own For embracing a hue she’d never condone She yelled I was turning black (Like that would ever be a curse) A flight to Malaysia told me all I needed to know. Where girls bleach their beautifully sun-kissed skin To be white as the snow that will never flutter over their region To be deemed pretty where Pretty isn’t in the eyes of the beholder It’s in the eyes of a blind sun So cover every inch, every pore of your skin Stay inside Don’t go near the carcinogenic sun Whose rays will mark you the same as a “dirty menial farmer” Remember “white makes you win” Absorb all the dramas you can And subconsciously ingrain the image in your head: Brown is dirty White is clean And when you stand in front of the mirror Tears swelling and blurring your vision Reducing you to a brown blob Remember all the scrubbing you may try to do Cannot erase what was never a stain.

The system malfunctioned once- “I wish I was as tanned as you!” Utter confusion stopped me in my tracks
…The same Americans who ostracized me for being Asian Want to achieve my tanned complexion? And so for a blissful summer With red, white, and blue pride If I stay my palest tan,

I can blend in Though as the Sun reaches its peak, Such a shame it is to stay inside To chase the clouds drifting over a faraway sea To heed their corn-pone creed for self-approval So I’ll step outside just for a moment And absorb the Sun Tan. Brown. Pure.