There’s no doubt the standards of beauty today is highly influenced by the media we consume.

Mrs. Okoye, the founder of CookieSkin believes the modern day definition of beauty should not be based on unattainable standards or media trends which creates a biased acceptance of who is considered beautiful and who isn’t. She believes “beauty is confidence.”

If beauty is confidence, how confident are women today? In their own skin? How confident are women today in their bodies and in themselves?

The CEO of L’Okoye Cosmetics teamed up with the, very confident and beautiful Nollywood star, Funke Akindele aka ‘Jenifa’.

The award winning actress took time off while filming on set to support the #BeautyIsConfidence campaign saying “I’m proud of her. It’s all about being confident, no matter your colour believe in you.”

The star and executive producer of the hit series, Jenifa’s Diaries encourages all women to adopt healthy skin care habits and to love the skin they are in, saying “every woman is special.”

Ghana’s top actress and TV host Ama K Aberese joined the CookieSkin campaign which means a lot to her as she too is an advocate for encouraging self-esteem amongst African women with her Say No To Bleaching Campaign.

Along with Ama K was Slyvia Nduka, former Miss Nigeria. Both ladies shared stories of moments when they felt insecure and recalled being teased because of their skin colour, size and even their height.

If only those that made of them could see them now, these beautiful ladies are full of life and confidence, striving to make a difference in society.

Who would have thought that Leslie Okoye aka MsCookieSkin ( on IG) would have been bullied and called all sorts of nicknames in high school.

She was nicknamed and teased by her classmates, called ‘agama-agama’ after the Agama lizard.

She was also teased as ‘Olive Oil’ the cartoon character Pop-eye’s wife, and also called ‘Yellow.’ Mrs. Okoye recalls locking herself in the bathroom on the first day of SS1, staring at her image in the mirror, with tears dripping down she prayed asking “God please just add two inches of hips to each side and please give me C cups.”

Today she says she’s happy she can laugh at it, but underneath her stern face she was quite insecure about her weight for years and sometimes her complexion too.

Leslie admits she occasionally used hydroquinone based creams in the past to get her fair skin back, especially after the hot summer months.

However, she didn’t like the ghost pale look she got either and so would use tanning creams to get a golden radiant glow.

In a nutshell, her struggle to maintain a healthy radiant even skin tone gave birth to CookieSkin, a holistic skincare line for women of color that is hydroquinone, mercury, steroids and bleach free.

This CEO and mother of two confesses it was a hard choice to say no to hydroquinone, saying “I could be making way more money if my creams could transform women from dark to light or yellow.

But I believe there must be women out there like me who know that bleaching is bad for their skin and just want healthy, fresh, flawless and radiant skin.”