As a high school teacher, I see students being very critical of one another's appearance. It is wrong. It's hard to tell someone that being unique and being yourself is beautiful, if they don't believe it. Peer pressure to look a certain way is wrong but it happens every day amongst high school students. Whatever skin color you were born with is part of your genetics--your heritage. Wear it proudly and believe you are beautiful.

Supermodel Oluchi Onweagba and former Miss World Agbani Darego certainly belie the foolish notion that "brown (light, medium, dark) skin people" are not beautiful or attractive!

Actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan of India (Bride and Prejudice, 2004) also certainly belies that notion. Actors Naveen Andrews, Arjun Rampal and Hrithik Roshan should put the whole idea that "brown (light, medium, dark) skin people" are not beautiful to rest as being the foolish utterings of unthinking people.

In other words, yes, "brown (light, medium, dark) skin people" are beautiful and attractive!

Just keep in mind that not everybody likes blond hair, not everybody likes green eyes, not everybody like curly hair, not everybody like black hair, and ... not everybody like darker skin tones. That's ok. Not everybody has to like any of these, or other, attributes.

Everybody does, however, have to remember that their preferences do not universal laws make! And everybody does have to remember to hold courteous, respectful thoughts so as to speak courteous, generous, respectful words.

You're right. But that doesn't seem to eliminate an infatuation that many in India and I guess around the world have with trying to get fair. Every second commercial on India television is about a fairness product. One of the most widely known brand names in India is "Fair and Lovely." Aishwarya Rai's popularity among her viewers here is to a large extent to do with the fact that she is fair, (as far as the general population in India is considered). I haven't done a course in psychology but I guess people wanting to be more fair is due to the fact that people living around the tropics have darker skin and for a very long time they were ruled by those who were fair. Like tall, hard and handsome applies for men as those capable of working in the outdoors and who were comparatively healthier had a darker tone, the same is the case for fairness being preferred as it implies a higher social status as only those with enough financial resources could, in the past, stay out of the sun.

Absolutely!  And don't let anyone tell you differently.  While individuals may be attracted to different qualities and characteristics depending on the person, and people often marry someone within their own race, there is no such thing as an unattractive race or ethnicity.  The numbers on interracial marriage and relationships are climbing as well.  In the 60's a popular saying was "Black is beautiful".  It certainly is, along with every other race.

Beauty and attractiveness should involve so much more than mere superficial appearance! Aside from agreeing with previous posts that there is no uniform standard for defining what is or is not "beautiful and attractive" in the physical sense, there are also aspects of appealing personality and empathy with others and being able to show others that they are important and cherished that are so much more important than appearance! 

It's definitely just a case of beauty being in the eye of the beholder.  With all that has been said, I would like to add that there is much more to beauty than what is on the exterior.  Like post #2, if your friends do not appreciate you for who you are and your personality, then I suggest finding some people to be around who are not quite so superficial. 

People of all shades are/can be beautiful. People who happen to be brown are often pointed to as examples of beauty (Beyonce is just one example and many more are suggested above). 

Color is not as influential in attractiveness as is fitness. Good looking people are healthy people 99% of the time. 

There are occasions in which people (like your friends, perhaps?) will be confused by the cultural implications of color. This can influence views of beauty as beauty is a culturally mitigated norm/concept.

Sometimes people believe that skin color determines cultural identity. This is a false assumption and has been for a long, long time. 

Supermodel Oluchi Onweagba and former Miss World Agbani Darego certainly belie the foolish notion that "brown (light, medium, dark) skin people" are not beautiful or attractive!

Actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan of India (Bride and Prejudice, 2004) also certainly belies that notion. Actors Naveen Andrews, Arjun Rampal and Hrithik Roshan should put the whole idea that "brown (light, medium, dark) skin people" are not beautiful to rest as being the foolish utterings of unthinking people.

In other words, yes, "brown (light, medium, dark) skin people" are beautiful and attractive!

Just keep in mind that not everybody likes blond hair, not everybody likes green eyes, not everybody like curly hair, not everybody like black hair, and ... not everybody like darker skin tones. That's ok. Not everybody has to like any of these, or other, attributes.

Everybody does, however, have to remember that their preferences do not universal laws make! And everybody does have to remember to hold courteous, respectful thoughts so as to speak courteous, generous, respectful words.

I think that in many cases we just want to be what we aren't.  People with curly hair straighten it.  People with straight hair get perms.  White people go to tanning booths.  I think that there is no one standard for what is beautiful but that many people want what they don't have.

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is absolutely true. It is hard to imagine that people wish to be white over any other color nowadays because of such things as Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity.  In the days before desegregation and Civil Rights, often people of color wished to be white so that they would have opportunities and not be discriminated against. But, there is little discrimination now.  If anything, statistics show that white males have greater difficulty in attaining jobs nowadays than before. Their unemployment is higher than it ever was.

Gone are the days in which the blond-haired, blue-eyed white-skinned look was the ideal. Darker people are clearly la mode now, even among Caucasians where dark hair is favored by many.

We live in a diverse world and those with power usually set the standard of beauty. So, in many places there is an implicit notion that paler skin is more beautiful. This is very unfortunate. People should find beauty in all skin colors and in diversity in general. If someone is so narrow minded not to see this, there is some maturing that needs to take place. 

First, different people have different standards for attractiveness. What this means is that there is no one skin color that is inherently more attractive than others. Beauty is subjective. Second, I'm not sure what you mean by your actual post. If your friends are saying they don't like you being brown-skinned, then get yourself some new friends.