Sad news in the Blogger world.

While I was prepping to publish this afternoon’s posts and lunching on a sandwich, I scrolled thru my Facebook and learned that a beautiful and progressive self-love advocate and blogger of the “For Brown Girls” blog, Karyn Washington, committed suicide at the age of 22.

I couldn’t even eat another bite and I literally sunk in my chair, saddened by such tragic news or such a tremendous loss of a female empowerment leader.

I didn’t know her personally, but I do recall seeing not long ago the Twitter hashtag #DarkSkinRedLip in reaction to rapper A$AP Rocky declaring last year that dark-skinned women shouldn’t wear red lipstick.

Karyn, at such a young age, created a movement off the hashtag outrage to encourage women with dark skin tones who may be struggling to accept their complexion to love and accept themselves. 

Karyn founded The Dark Skin Red Lip project and blog where she collected images of dark-skinned women wearing red lipstick and raised money for an awareness campaign. It sold a shirt for girls to wear proud.

Apparently, according to Karyn’s friend, beauty blogger Ty Alexander of the “Gorgeous in Gray” blog, Karyn was having a tough time coming to grips with her mother’s own recent passing from a long battle with cancer and she became overwhelmed with the grief. According to text and email communication with Karyn that Ty published on her blog today, Karyn gave out warning signs months ago that expressed an interest in “giving up.”

And she did on April 8, coincidentally exactly one year after Madame Noire’s article about the A$AP comments. Rest in Peace, Karyn.

So sad. Some of those who knew her and her work of encouraging other young girls and women published memorial posts that you can find Here and Here and from media outlets The Root, Clutch Online, For Harriet blog, Black Media Scoop, Black Youth Project  and Classy Black Lady.

Look for Warning Signs. Help Someone

And it’s a good time to remind ourselves to reach out to those personally around us if we notice mood and behavior changes, letting their appearance go, dropping out of school or hobbies, avoiding friends, not sleeping well, or a big change in mood, reach out. Let them know someone cares and you are there for them.

This is true especially, as in the case with Karyn, if there has been a life altering episode, or another situation that leads to extreme emotional stress. Heed to warning signs that someone may be suffering with depression.

If  you have had suicidal thoughts, Please Stay.

If you are reading this, and you have had suicidal thoughts, and are dealing with so much sadness, loneliness or other anxiety that you feel you cannot cope any longer with the pain, please remember that “this too shall pass.”

“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us,” Alexander Graham Bell famously said.

An unknown author quipped, “Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain.” 

It may be really hard to come to grip with the grande scheme of life and your perspective may be skewed right now because of how you are feeling, but trust me when I say, there is a light and hope and happiness waiting for you on earth. 

Find someone to talk to and if you don’t feel you can open up with some there is always the National suicide prevention hotline  for US residents (Internationally for others) where you can get help and  guidance, and perhaps a referral to some place where you can get personal, confidential counseling at no cost too. 

There is good and beauty everywhere. 

Try to concentrate on the positive things about yourself and your life. Make plans this weekend to get away and have some fun. Splurge on a manicure or facial. Enjoy the weather and if it’s raining, check out some movies you’ve never seen. There are so many out there you haven’t watched. 

You cannot end it all now. (smile) 

Live for another day. Survive this.