Young South Asian Women Are Changing Beauty Standards

In an ideal world, we’d shrug off criticism and keep it moving, but when it comes from your own friends or family, it’s even more difficult to overcome. After all, your circle is meant to protect you and build you up. In a positive move, a new generation of South Asian parents are proactively breaking the cycle and detaching themselves from toxic beauty standards for the sake of their children. It feels like a turning point is on the horizon. Dr. Zahra Fazal, aesthetic practitioner and director of Harley Street-based Tweak Facial Aesthetics sees body dysmorphia in her patients and is “conflicted” knowing that her industry “can be a big part of the problems young girls face.” Nonetheless, she is proactively protecting her three-year-old daughter Leya* from the negative effects of these types of comments. The first step is confronting her own demons, she says, and “undoing the years of being told how and what I should look like.” Despite working in the aesthetics industry, Dr. Fazal makes a conscious effort not to bring her work home or comment on appearances — positively or negatively — in front of Leya in a bid to protect her confidence. “When we praise her, it is for her personality, her intellect, her behavior, her hard work, her sassiness,” she says.