Mimi Mbah, a 19 year old US-based Cameroonian has been praised for her courage in defending her blackness against suggestions that she would be more attractive if she were lighter.

Mimi Mbah, who lives in Maryland fired back at a supposed racist on Twitter, after being told she would look better if her skin wasn’t black. The aspiring model’s response has won the support of tens of thousands online. The comment was made on her Instagram photographs that featured on a Twitter account called African Beauties.

Writing under the name Tosh, the twitter user wrote; ‘If she was lighter, she’d be fire’. In her reply Mimi said she wouldn’t trade her skin color for the world.

Mimi’s reply has attracted hundreds of supportive comments, over 20,000 re-tweets and more than 56,000 likes.

Although she was not surprised by the message, Mimi said she “definitely felt disappointed” and has never encountered abuse like it before.

Hear her, “Reading the comments I definitely felt disappointed to see that there are still people out there that shame others for the darkness of their skin, but it didn’t surprise me because I’ve heard comments like those before. I wanted to stand up not only for me, but for anybody who has felt or feel less than due to the ignorance of others” she said.