Meghan Markle Is Standing Up to Anyone Who Tries to Photoshop Her Freckles

If you need one more reason (opens in new tab) to love Meghan Markle, the fact that she embraces her natural beauty is high up on the list. The Suits star (and girlfriend to Prince Harry (opens in new tab)...#casual) opened up about her freckles in Allure (opens in new tab)—and the reason she won't let people photoshop them is truly inspiring.

"I have the most vivid memories of being seven years old and my mom picking me up from my grandmother's house," she said. "There were the three of us, a family tree in an ombré of mocha next to the caramel complexion of my mom and light-skinned, freckled me. I remember the sense of belonging, having nothing to do with the color of my skin."

Markle said it was only the outside world that tried to label her identity based on her skin color, and her freckles factored into the equation. "I took an African-American studies class at Northwestern where we explored colorism; it was the first time I could put a name to feeling too light in the black community, too mixed in the white community," she explained. "For castings, I was labeled 'ethnically ambiguous.' Was I Latina? Sephardic? 'Exotic Caucasian?' Add the freckles to the mix and it created quite the conundrum."

Now, Markle views her freckles as part of what makes her, well, her—and they are not to be messed with. "To this day, my pet peeve is when my skin tone is changed and my freckles are airbrushed out of a photo shoot," she said. "I will share with you something my dad told me when I was younger: 'A face without freckles is a night without stars.'"

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