Karyn Washington is the founder of the inspirational blog for women with darker skin colour – for brown girls.com . She was all for inspiring women of darker skin to embrace, love and appreciate their beauty. Her all was to give women reason to feel pretty and she did her best to spark a self love campaign that now lives. At just 19 she found strength enough to encourage others . She helped so many women to rediscover, appreciate , love themselves and find a way to keep living happily. Unfortunately, Karyn wasn’t strong enough to find that solace to keep living.
Her death on the 8th of April 2014 at just 22 with apparent suicide is one death that has shaken the world of women of colour. Her death has got her fans so devastated and her followers are yet to come to terms with her death.

We gathered from friends that she had suffered mental illness and depression after her mother passed on last year. The world will remember Karyn for her advocacy and that even in her death, she has continued to be an icon for change. Her death has again sparked a real time debate, discussions and serious talks , creating channels for Black women to speak up . After all it’s obvious that Black women are not strong, Black women can also commit suicide. Suicide after all is not a White thing.

Sadly, Karyn had to again sacrifice her own life for us to learn the truth , for us to talk about mental illness, depression and suicide. Will her death finally end the stigma that these carry within the Black community?