We are all subject to external and internal pressures to meet certain beauty standards. While much of this pressure comes from societal expectations, sometimes our own desires align with those standards.  For me, I’ve been pale my whole life. In the summer I might get the slightest bit of color, but I usually just burn and fade back to pale. Now, there is nothing wrong with being pale, and furthermore there are historic and systemic benefits of being light skinned (aka white privilege) which I acknowledge but isn’t the topic of this post.  Because I never had success just tanning in the sun, I learned to accept my pale skin.…