Black Panther star Lupita Nyong’o has revealed she started a petition in high school for girls to be allowed to wear make-up.
The Oscar winning actress and feminist icon, 35, attended a former all-boys high school. She was shocked to discover that the school had an “archaic” rule that stated that girls were not allowed to wear make-up to class, reports femalefirst.co.uk.
While Nyong’o says she personally didn’t care about using beauty products, she wanted to make sure her peers had the freedom of choice to wear it if they wanted to.
“I went to an all-boys school for high school, and they had girls in the last two classes. This is a school with 700 boys and a handful of girls. At one point, there was an archaic rule that said that girls could not wear make-up to school. I was angry that the powers that be were trying to basically oppress and control the small female population,” she told InStyle magazine.
The actress said it infuriated her to the point that she started a petition.
“I said to myself, ‘Look, if a woman wants to wear make-up to school to feel confident in an environment where she’s a minority, why not? It does not actually change whether or not she’s able to take in the information being given to her in the classroom.’ I personally had no interest in wearing make-up, but I just did not think it was right,” she said.
Nyong’o is still not obsessed with wearing make-up, but instead uses it to enhance her natural features and for fun.
