How can I describe a character who is black, but lighter-skinned?

Question

So I have a character who's on the lighter shade for black and I want to describe her better:

"Hi, Mama," An attractive curly-haired woman greets. Her honey brown eyes gaze around the beautiful contemporary styled kitchen.

How can I do so?

Answer 1

There isn't much context to work upon, so I'm giving it as best a go as I can. Hopefully, you'll find something helpful.

"Hi, Mama," a woman with a face any boy could love greets, her hairstyle twisting and turning prettier than vines. The sapodillas waiting on the desk paled before her healthy eyes that kept gazing around the functional yet artistic kitchen endowed with dark wood, better yet, glossed by the steel appliances.

What did I change here? Rather than just mention that she's attractive and got curly hair, I went about describing that a bit metaphorically, thereby giving that freshness to her features. Also, I've used the sapodillas on the desk(took the liberty of putting them there, if you don't mind) to describe her eyes, and then gave an abstract picture of the kitchen, which will give enough to the readers to imagine better than the words 'beautiful contemporary kitchen.' You can be more elaborate with the kitchen details if you want, or you can just make do with what you've already got. It's all up to your style and satisfaction.

Also, if you don't already know, you can either describe her features in one long paragraph, or a few paragraphs on the same page, or spread out over the chapter. The choice is yours, but unless they are mentioned in a special way, the readers will forget it sooner than they read the details. In fact, most people finish reading novels without even remembering the hair or eye colors of their main characters. To be honest, features don't really matter much unless they play a significant role in the plot. So, don't force them too much on the readers by mentioning them once every page or every time they show up even though they show up frequently because that'll make your readers want to pluck all those pretty features out of those characters' faces as badly as one can imagine. That's all.