Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Reveals Why She Quit Wearing Makeup [WATCH]

As part of her campaign, the author has shed more light on how she rediscovered makeup.

Chimamanda Ngozi reveals that growing up in Nigeria, there was the cultural expectation that one must look good, particularly in Lagos which she thinks is the most stylish city in the world, but she met a different culture in the United States where a writer wasn’t taken seriously if she wears a red lipstick.

“I grew up in Nigeria; if you’re a serious, intelligent woman and you wear make-up and dress up, people don’t judge you harshly, because culturally there is an expectation that you care about your appearance, ” she said. “When I moved to the US to go to college, […] that’s when I thought – these people are not going to take me seriously if I whip out my bright red lipstick at the writers’ conference. So I stopped,” she said, noting that this began when she was 19 or 20.

“Being taken seriously was very important to me,” she said, explaining why she had to stop wearing makeup when attending a writers’ conference. “Being female, being young-ish and being black were all things I had to overcome in my bid for seriousness,” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie added.

But this has all changed as she has come into herself and sees makeup as what it is – just makeup. “I love nothing more than people who come to my book events and say, “What is that lipstick?” That’s the most important question,” she added.

Watch the illuminating videos, and please go ahead, whip out that funky red lipstick and have fun with yourself!