What would you tell your 17-year-old self? The little girl mired in peer pressure, social anxieties, identity issues, not knowing where she’d end up, unsure of what’s right and wrong – it’s every adolescent girl’s story. Doubts about body image and what people think of her plague her mind: Am I too short? Am I too fat? Is my hair too unruly? Is my laughter too loud? Am I not fair? She over-thinks, plays up her own anxieties, and it unwittingly affects her self-confidence.
And then she grows up. More important issues take precedence in her life: finding love, building relationships, becoming someone, having fun. All those adolescent fears vanish. But sometimes, parts of it linger. It holds her back from being who she truly is: beautiful, unstoppable, magical.
Which is why this heartwarming video has been doing the rounds on social media, inspiring faith, reassurance and acceptance of one’s body and style.
It’s a simple and straightforward message: You’re beautiful. Not according to standards set by conventional media, but as you are.
The gorgeous, confident, alluring Radhika Apte elegantly bashes the ‘well-behaved Indian girl’ ideal.
Source: Facebook (left), Facebook (centre), Facebook (right)
She asks: how do you define well-behaved? How do you define Indian girl? How do you define beautiful, normal, acceptable? Unpretentious, genuine, and honest, this is a message every woman needs to hear, so that she appreciates herself better, and can go out there and break records and set milestones for herself.
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