Basketball star Liz Cambage slams ‘white-washed’ Australian beauty standards after moving to America where her complexion is ‘accepted’
Australian basketball star Liz Cambage has spoken about her struggles with body image after growing up in what she describes as ‘white-washed Australia’.
The 28-year-old athlete, who is half Nigerian, spent her childhood in Melbourne before moving to the U.S. as a teenager to play basketball.
‘Coming from white-washed Australia to America, I saw people from all walks of life on TV and in magazines. It’s what I needed to be confident in what I am and in my looks,’ Liz told this month’s Elle Australia.
‘It’s what I needed to be confident’: Australian basketball star Liz Cambage has spoken about her struggles with body image after growing up in a ‘white-washed Australia’. Pictured on July 26, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada
‘I could finally buy the proper hair products and found a makeup artist who understood my skin,’ she added.
Liz, who plays for the Australian Opals and the Las Vegas Aces, previously admitted she was once ashamed to have darker skin.
She told ABC’s The Weekly earlier this month, she explained: ‘I was raised by mum who’s white and she raised me amazingly, but I was never in touch with my black side growing up in a very white-washed Australia.’
New outlook: Liz, who is half Nigerian, spent her childhood in Melbourne before moving to the U.S. as a teenager to play basketball
Liz admitted she would straighten and dye her hair, and even wear blue contacts lenses at school so she would fit in.
‘I got to a point when I was 16 and I realised this isn’t me and this isn’t who I am and I just cut that all out,’ she said.
‘I really owned myself and who I was.’
‘I was never in touch with my black’: Earlier this month, Liz told The Weekly’s Charlie Pickering that she was once ashamed to have darker skin
‘I realised this isn’t me’: Liz, who plays for the Australian Opals and the Las Vegas Aces, admitted she would straighten and dye her hair, and even wear blue contact lenses to school
The outspoken sportswoman went on to blast the Australian media for failing to properly represent the country’s multiculturalism.
‘[America is] such a diverse country and everyone’s put on show there,’ she said.
‘And here in Australia we market ourselves as a multicultural country but we never see that on TV.’
‘We market ourselves as a multicultural country but we never see that on TV’: Liz blasted the Australian media for failing to properly represent the country’s multiculturalism