Los Angeles: Oscar winning actress Lupia Nyong’o believes that western beauty standards are things that affect the entire world, as she feels invisible because of lack of dark-skinned women on TV and films.

The ‘12 Years a Slave’ actress feels that dark-skinned women are underrepresented in western culture and admitted she can identify with very few on-screen characters.

‘If you turn on the television and you are not represented on that television, you become invisible to yourself. And there was very little of myself that I saw on TV, or in the movies that I was watching, or in magazines that were lying around the salons or around the house,’ Elle magazine quoted Nyong’o as saying.

‘Yes, western beauty standards are things that affect the entire world. And then what happens? You’re a society that doesn’t value darker skin,’ she added.