Habibat Jinadu says she bleached her skin to win Nollywood roles
- Actress Habibat Jinadu told BBC Yoruba she lightened her skin because dark-skinned, slim actresses struggled to get roles.
- She said roles came after the change, but people no longer recognised her and she suffered skin injuries on set.
- Jinadu stopped bleaching during a 2023 pregnancy and said she was later insulted over her complexion.
Nollywood actress Habibat Jinadu has said she bleached her skin because she believed film directors would not cast her as a dark-skinned, slim woman, according to an interview she gave to BBC Yoruba.
In the interview, reported by several Nigerian outlets on Thursday, Jinadu said the pressure to fit a preferred look in the industry shaped her decision.
"I bleached my skin because if you were dark-skinned, then you would not get a role. Also, if you were not chubby but slim, you would not get a role," she said.
She recalled that a director would say she was too dark when the lights were turned on her on set, and that one remark about her appearance hit hardest. "I didn't pay much attention to it until someone said I looked like a monkey," she said.
Roles came, but so did injuries
Jinadu said the change in her complexion did bring acting work, but it came with a cost. People who saw her in public could not place her face, she said, often telling her only that she looked familiar.
"I was not happy with it, but I kept on pushing," she said.
She also said her skin became fragile, and she began to suffer tears and injuries from minor bruises while working on movie sets.
Jinadu said she stopped bleaching when she became pregnant in 2023, since the practice is not considered safe during pregnancy. That decision brought a different kind of attention: she said people insulted her and called her names once her natural complexion returned.
Her account touches a familiar debate in Nollywood and beyond about colourism, the preference for lighter skin that many Nigerians say shapes casting, advertising and everyday comments. Skin-lightening creams remain widely sold in Nigeria, and dermatologists have long warned that some products can thin the skin, cause scarring and leave users more vulnerable to injury and infection.
Jinadu did not say in the interview whether she has had medical treatment for the injuries she described, and she did not name any director.
She has not indicated whether she plans to speak further on the issue.
