Sudanese activist-DJ-model Mari Malek shares her story in StyleLikeU's interview series What's Underneath. Mari was born in war-torn Sudan, has lived in the projects of New Jersey, and has faced extreme harassment due to the dark color of her skin.

Though she has endured struggles that few of us will experience, Maria has never strayed from her true self: "Fuck everybody who thinks I should suppress my identity. Fuck fear. It’s time for the world to look at one another not as black race or a white race but as a human race."

Staceyann Chin is a performance poet, radical activist, and super mom. When she was 24, Chin relocated to the United States from Jamaica in an effort to experience acceptance as a lesbian, which she wasn’t able to find at home. In the U.S., she faced the complicated intersections of being Black and lesbian. She talks about that and more in the video below.

In the 1970s, it was uncommon to see a Black woman walk the runway. During that time, Bethann Hardison did just that and became a muse for designers in the industry including Calvin Klein and Willi Smith. During her years as a model, Hardison developed the desire to diversify the fashion industry and in 1984, she founded the modeling agency Bethann Management. “Whenever fashion designers wanted to use a girl of color in their shows, they would call me,” she said in her Style Like U “What’s Underneath” video.