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Stop whitewashing Holly Short
I feel like I have to have this talk somewhere outside my head.
I, a 14 year old teenager of color, have always loved Holly Short.
She was described as powerful, with features like a hooked nose, and a dark skin, that made her beautiful. Things that I have always been insecure about, teased for, insulted for, were what made her beautiful.
The powerful woman, who fought sexism and always did the right thing, IMMEDIATELY became my comfort character.
I started to feel better about myself. Draw portraits with my favourite features in my self exaggerated in them. I loved my own features, because she had them.
And then, after reading the whole series and loving it, came the thirst for content. Content in wich, Holly Short, was always whitwashed.
So many fanart, official comics, covers, the goddamn movie! In all of them, Holly wasn't how i imagined her to be. The fact punches me every time. Her skin, her features, are FLAWS that people just prefer to erase from her character.
I still remember how sad i got when i first was raving to a friend about Holly and she said 2 my face how she thought she would be prettier if she were white.
Whitewashing Holly is basically saying the same thing.
Many may go, "whatever, who gives a shit about her color".
But things like this are what make teenagers, kids, like me back at the time, insecure and hating themselves because of simply simply being born the way they are born.