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So for the longest time, one of the main characters of my current writing project has kept the same coloring since the day I created her. And normally I don't tend to give any of my characters makeovers because I can see them so clearly in my head.
But when I was having my beta readers review my story, a lot of comments came up about the skin tone of my main girl, which I think normally wouldn't have been mentioned except I'm making a fantasy world based on Ancient Egyptian and Middle Eastern cultures so they thought it might be taken the wrong way that I've got the girl who is the chosen of the world's greatest goddess as having super pale skin.
And the reason I did that was that as a Latina who has caucasian pale skin, I've always felt out of place among my relatives. Growing up, people didn't believe me when I said I was a first-generation Mexican, and even more so when I showed them pictures of my Papi (I was even asked if I was adopted). Making my girl super pale among people who are tan and dark-skinned was something very near and dear to me, because I know I can't be the only pale-skinned minority who feels like an outcast among my own culture.
I can see how making a super pale person so powerful among darker-skinned people could be construed as white supremacy (which is not what I meant at all!), so I've been playing around with the idea of changing her.
But again, I don't want to change her because I'd be afraid of people making the wrong assumptions and missing the message I'm trying to convey. I don't want to be one of those creators who bows to the masses, makes everything PC, and makes characters who look more like stereotypical minorities just to check off some boxes.
Yes, getting more representation is important! I would love to see more Latinx characters in fiction!
But I think people forget about the minorities among the minorities, people like me who have trouble fitting into their own families simply because our genes decided to be atypical.
So should I stick to how she's always been? Change her appearence? Or is there a happy medium?