When I was growing up, I always tried to stay out of the sun too. I remember one time in elementary school, me and my other 8-year-old friends were comparing early summer tans and everyone was proud of the slight brownish tint they'd got. Of course, I was already way ahead of them, and I was proud of it, so I said something like, "I'm already tan!" Of course, everyone just laughed. I remember realizing at that moment that being brown was only cool if you were white. :/
Since then, and up until recently, I've tried to stay as light as as possible. It's not even that my friends and family gave a shit. I can't really explain it other than that it felt more challenging to maintain light skin, and that made it somehow more desirable.
Coming to Indonesia where light skin is really prized, though, has pushed me hard in the opposite direction. Here, it's hard to find a facial cream that doesn't contain whitening agents. Sometimes women choose foundation shades that are lighter than their skin tone, lending their face a grayish color that's a totally different shade than the rest of their body. When I flew here I came straight from the dead of New York winter, so my skin was the lightest it ever gets, and people loved it. They thought I looked Korean (considered very beautiful in Indonesia), they praised my color, they warned me about going out in the sun and ruining it. It actually drove me fucking nuts because the colorism was suddenly obvious in a way it had never been before.
So I said fuck that and decided to see how tan I could get living on the equator. The answer is: pretty tan! And the world hasn't ended or anything. I kind of like it.
Other than skin color, I've always been pretty "Western" in how I like to style myself. I didn't grow up with Asian beauty trends and neither did my other Asian American friends. So I'm not into the minimal look at all. Power brows are a good trend for me since I'm naturally hairy, bold lipstick is my jam, and if I wear eye makeup, it's heavy. I pretty much do the hipster art student look.
Speaking in a general sense, I can definitely appreciate some Asian beauty trends. The fresh-faced Korean look is pretty dope, for example. A lot of Indonesian women also bleach their hair to natural-looking brown tones, and that looks good to me too.
On the other hand, some trends just seem silly to me. I can't stand circle lenses. I think it looks like your soul got sucked out of your body. Also, sometimes women here pencil in their eyebrows as a reddish brown when the rest of their head hair is black, and all I can think is whyyy???
Anyway, that got suuuper rambly, but that's basically my experience.