I started my personal blog, Light-skinned-ed Girl, in 2006 when I was trying to regroup.  I had just heard from my uber-agent that ALL of the 36 publishing houses she had sent the manuscript (that would become the book The Girl Who Fell From the Sky) had rejected my book.  It was the end of road.  But when I looked back at the reasons they had rejected the book, a number of them said that there was no market for a story about a half-black and half-Danish girl.  There was no Afro-Viking demographic to sell it to.  With my blog, I set out to prove them wrong!

This is part of a series of posts that I did about people reacting to my eyes.  I have brown skin and blue eyes and this seems to amaze (or haunt) a lot of people.  For me, the “Are those your eyes?” question is as common as the “What are you?” question.

Here is the first post in the series:

At the gym last week, I noticed a woman kind of smiling in my direction. She had a friendly face and I smiled back. Later, when I got on the exercise bike next to hers, she said: “Are those your eyes?”

The question is as familiar to me as “What are you?” Often people will say: “I bet people tell you that you have beautiful eyes all the time.” It’s just shy of a compliment so it’s difficult to know how to respond without sounding vain. I would never respond: “Well, actually, yes.” Instead, in those instances, I give my standard line: “You know, I always feel appreciative when I hear that.”–which by the way is true. Who doesn’t love to receive a compliment?! But the lady at the gym that day had a new response to my eyes . . .

Read the rest of the post here.–Heidi Durrow

[ “”Are those your eyes?” = the new What are you question #multiracial #mixed”]