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 revealed has spoken about her struggles with body image after growing up in what she describes as ‘white-washed Australia’.
The 28-year-old, who is half Nigerian, spent her childhood in Melbourne before moving to the US 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 Elle Australia magazine’s latest issue.
‘It’s what I needed to be confident in what I am and in my looks’: Basketball star Liz Cambage, 28, has slammed ‘white-washed’ Australian beauty standards after moving to America where her complexion is ‘better accepted’
‘I could finally buy the proper hair products and found makeup artist who understood my skin,’ she said.
Liz, who plays for the Australian Opals and the Las Vegas Aces, previously admitted she was once ashamed to have darker skin.
Speaking to The Weekly on ABC 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 US as a teenager to play basketball
Liz admitted she would straighten and dye her hair, and even wear blue contacts to 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,’ said Liz.
‘I really owned myself and who I was,’ she added.
Earlier this month, Liz admitted to The Weekly’s Charlie Pickering that she was once ashamed to have darker skin
Liz, who plays for the Australian Opals and the Las Vegas Aces, admitted she would straighten and dye her hair, and even wear blue contacts to school so she would fit in
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,’ Liz added.
‘We market ourselves as a multicultural country but we never see that on TV’: The outspoken sportswoman went on to blast the Australian media for failing to properly represent the country’s multiculturalism