LOS ANGELES — Charmaine Bey, entrepreneur and former star of the reality show “Black Ink Crew: Chicago,” faced harsh criticism and bullying when her children were born with different complexions than her and her husband.

Daughters Nola and Charli were born with fair skin, blue eyes and red hair — a stark difference from the complexions of their brown-skinned parents.

What You Need To Know

  • Charmaine Bey faced harsh criticism and bullying when her children were born with different complexions

  • Bey wrote the book children’s “Nubians Come in All Shades" to help her children, and others, feel confident and empowered in their skin

  • An associate professor of anthropology at USC says genetics play a complex role in determining our physical traits

  • The Beys hope the book and the family's story will help the Black community and others unite in acceptance and love

Bey has more than 1 million followers on Instagram, but the internet had never been a particularly kind place for her. And when the comments became about her children’s appearance, she knew she had to take a stand.

“We were just happy that [our daughter] was healthy,” Bey said. “But on the internet, people were so mean sometimes even going as far as to question who my child’s father was.”

In response to the hate, Bey wrote the children’s book “Nubians Come in All Shades” to help her children — and others — feel confident and empowered in their skin. The book shows the countless amount of children and people of African descent with contrasting features.

“Nubians Come in All Shades” was written to shed light and love on all shades of melanated children.

“I didn’t want it to hurt my children’s feelings, and I didn’t want them to have to figure out how to explain to people when they ask them, ‘Oh, what are you mixed with?’ or, ‘Oh, why you got red hair?’ or, ‘Where’d you get your eyes from?’” Bey said. “At the end of the day, we’re all Nubians.”

Reighan Gillam, associate professor of anthropology at USC, explained that genetics play a complex role in determining our physical traits.

“There is no guarantee that our offspring will resemble us or have our features, and this is really due to genes and the complexity of genes,” Gillam said. “So you can have parents or grandparents or great grandparents who were very light-skinned, and then we don’t really see that until many generations later with the children.”

Gillam highlighted that African Americans can be a range of complexions.

“We can look around us and see people of various different shades and textures of hair and color and eye color and nose shapes identifying as Black,” she said. “These variations don’t make somebody less Black or more Black. We can all appreciate the diversity of Black people and what makes us a group of people.”

Bey expressed hope that her book and family’s story will help the Black community and others unite in acceptance and love.

“At the end of the day, we should be proud to be who we are no matter our history, no matter what genes are popping up here and there,” she said. “And we all should stand in that together.”

“Nubians Come in All Shades” can be found here.