Alexandria & Oluchi - The Untold Stories Initiative

Alexandria and Oluchi are students at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Attending a private institution where 81% of the student body is white, 6% Hispanic, 3% Asian/Pacific Islander, and 1% black can be challenging for a young black woman. Some feel unseen, unwanted, and even fetishized. Watch or read what Alexandria and Oluchi have to say about their experience as black women in Provo, Utah.

"I want to like feel like I normal human being. Because you're either on display and everybody is overly interested and asking weird questions or you're overlooked because you don't have straight blond hair or just what they're used to." - Oluchi

"Just like some random guy when we were walking here asked that 'come up and touch your hair' like we're in a petting zoo or something like we're not. We have to answer them because we always have to be the teacher." - Alexandria

"I'd say that, don't pay to much attention to what society says or what everybody else says because trends and fads come and go. Some will tell you that you're beautiful and then it'll fade out in 5 years so you need to be able to have that within yourself and have that sureness in yourself. Being sure it's not based on anything else." - Alexandria

"I'd probably tell my younger self that my source of self-esteem should be from me because for the longest time I'd look everywhere for validation and just to feel good, pretty and like wanted but that can go wrong in a lot of ways. If I accept myself then people will start to accept me." - Oluchi

Photo Credit: Samantha Stone