by David Jordan

Everyone knows how beautiful Lupita Nyong’o is, especially after seeing her glow on the big screen. The star of the hit movie, “12 Years a Slave” has gotten buzz all throughout Hollywood for her extraordinary performance. She has been nominated for an Oscar, a Golden Globe and is quickly becoming one of the leading faces of high fashion.

If she has been so successful, then why in the world is Vanity Fair allegedly lightening her skin? That’s the question being asked by millions of fans, who are concerned about the most recent images of the actress that have appeared in public.

This week, Vanity Fair made the announcement that the beautiful 30-year old Kenyan was going to be on their cover. They then tweeted a photo of the woman looking stunning as usual. But there was something different about this picture, namely that she appeared far darker than anyone had seen her before.

It was after grabbing other pictures of the woman from the past that people put two and two together to realize that Vanity Fair may have made her more “acceptable” for the cover by lightening her up to become desirable to the public. This is a no-no, and the magazine is getting major fire for this one.

One of the first tweets came from someone by the name of Renee Kelly “PR Girl”: “@VanityFair: The stunning @Lupita_Nyongo did you lighten her skin?” she asked.

This is not the first time that Vanity Fair has been accused of giving black women “fairer” skin. They appeared to have done the same thing with both India Arie and Beyonce. They were criticized for both images, but seem to have been unfazed by this. Do you think they are inviting this attention in order to sell magazines?