Dont’s,No More

A lot of

“Confidence breeds beauty.”ESTEE LAUDER, BUSINESSWOMAN

“I was told pageants are not intelligent.” Sushmita Sen and other beauty queens faced this prejudice. But they proved everyone wrong and how.....

Sushmita Sen won the Miss Universe crown for India in1994 when she was 18 – she was the first ever Indian womanto achieve this feat. Did it take just physical beauty toreach where she did? No, it was more wholesome – it was

about grit, personality and loads of talent. “Modelling or partic-ipating in a beauty pageant is as hardworking a field as softwareengineering,” says the former Miss Universe and acclaimed actor. Sen learnt how to groom herself and had her share of strug-gles to enter the beauty pageant. In fact, the outfit she wore forthe Miss Universe finale round wasn’t a designer one and wasstitched in a local tailor’s shop in Delhi!

M ost girls have had their share ofexperiences of being told to spendmore time on taking care of their

upcoming exam vis-a-vis their appearance. So, isinvesting some time and energy in skincare,haircare, etc. waste of time? Well, if you arespending hours in front of the mirror whenyou need to study and participate in a sport,

then it is likely to bother your parents andteachers. However, if you are giving suffi-

cient time to your school curriculum andalongside taking good care of yourskin and hair health and physicalfitness, there is no reasonwhy it will upset yourelders and teachers. On the other hand,there will be somerelatives and neigh-

bours who will

pass snideremarks ifthey noticeyou applying aface mask orbuying goodquality hair oilas few people

in our society

have a closed mindset of equating investmentin personality development with non-serious attitude towards career building. If you get an off-hand remark from any such person, engage in aconversation positively: give them examples ofwomen doctors, engineers, politicians, entrepre-neurs who focus on their grooming and gain confi-dence from it to better their careers. Chances areyou will be heard.

A ccording to Sen, this mindset isfar from true. “There is far toomuch responsibility for the

model because she is the face of yoursociety,” she opines. All professionsincluding modelling or being a beautyentrepreneur needs consistent hard

work. And every successstory is the result of sweatand will power.

ModelSonalika Sahay

is a hotelmanagement

graduate and ex-airhostess. She also

launched a fashion e-portal that she

eventually sold offto an investor

IS THE MODELLINGINDUSTRY VAIN?

GROOMING AND EDUCATION CAN GO HAND-IN-HAND

STUDENT SPEAK“Pageants are no longer just about

clothes and pretty looking ladies, it’salso about all round personal develop-ment. Models teach you to stand with

your head high and face the world as ifyou are the queen. I salute their confidence.”

SHARANYA PATNAIK, student, MothersInternational School, New Delhi

“Who has given anyone the right to shame aprofession or contest? Beauty pageants are

like launching pads for youngsters who want to dosomething for the society. It’s no fun, it’s more work.

SONIA SARKAR, student, Amity International

School , Delhi

I ntelligent women followglamorous careers withaplomb. If some young

women aspire for a model-ling or acting career, theyshould not be jeered at andassumed to be bird-brained.One can pursue an academic career while nurturing dreams of

becoming the next ‘Miss India’ too. RoshmithaHarimurthy, winner of Miss Diva Universe 2016says, “Beauty pageant contestants are talent-ed in their own right and display great person-

ality skills. That is an achieve-ment in itself.” Check thesestatistics that reinforceswhat Harimurthy said:around 45 per cent ofbeauty contestants in

major pageants arepracticing doctors, 15per cent are MBAsand 10 per cent areteachers.

BLONDE JOKES ARE PASSE...BLONDE JOKES ARE PASSE...

I sabella Dymalovski, founder of a naturalskincare line for girls in Australia is asuccessful teen entrepreneur. She con-

verted her passion for organic beauty byfounding her ownskincare line. Today,she is an inspirationfor girls who want to

create a niche forthemselves in the beautyindustry. Jhelum BiswasBose, founder-owner of a

wellness brand, was toldin her teensthat her love for

beauty is frivo-lous. “My mom

owns a salon; we

both love beauty but I spent mychildhood hearing that my pursuitis silly, not smart.” She proved hermettle by founding herown wellness and skin-care brand andbecoming an authorof a book on beauty.

CAREER IN BEAUTY INDUSTRY? WHY NOT

There are so many things that make a person success-ful, however grooming does play a significant role –it reflects self-care. When someone puts in effort,

thought and care into how to present theirown self, it shows their attitude

towards everything they do.

RAGINI SINGH, VP Creativeof a fashion e-portal

Former Miss WorldManushiChillar is amedicalstudent whoscored wellthroughouther schooland collegelife

Once upon a time, the word ‘female’ wasadded before the word ‘athlete’ whiletalking about women in sports. Now,she is an athlete. Period. This

change has been recent after women livedwith the ‘female athlete’ tag for decades.This Women’s Day is a time to celebratethis cultural shift and recognition afteryears of battle. Gender equality — thetheme for this Women’s Day — is still tobe achieved, from pay gap to fashionnotions and beauty ideals seeped in exclusivity andpatriarchy. However, women havetaken many strides and the world istaking note and trying to listen. So,there are women declaring theylove blue and not just pink andyoung women becoming sportsfashion entrepreneurs and so on. Tothem, three cheers!

Men like blue, so do girlsA 2007 research conducted at theNewcastle University in the UK asked

people about theirfavourite colour.Did most of the

women choose hot pink or red? No. The colour whichcame out top, for both men and women, was blue.

Usually, cultural norms shape colour preferences,so pink became the appropriate colour for a

baby girl and blue for a baby boy, and theygrew up wearing these colours until it becamea habit – shaped by gender-based culturalmores. However, surveys have shown girlslove blue as much as men or even more,despite the societal conditioning. What’s thenew verdict: EVERYONE wears blue!

Give me

“I’m a girl” BLUE

A company CEO at the age of 13 anda self-made millionaire by 15, RachelZietz — through her hugely success-ful online sportswear company in theUS — is an achiever in her own right.The Florida girl’s business turnoverwas around $2 million in 2018.

Women have always been associat-

ed with fashion ventures but sportsfashion for long has been the turf ofmen. Not anymore. Women entrepre-neurs, especially young girls, areventuring in this territory and mak-ing meaningful businesses and creat-ing everything from tennis racquetsto soccer wear and more.

S P O R T S FA S H I O N BY W O M E N

A symbol of powerand taking charge,pants for a very longtime was supposedto be a men’s thing.In fact, many UScities in the 19thand 20th cen-turies, had passedlegislation bar-ring women fromwearingtrousers.Eventually womenentered the work-force and startedwearing pants, andin the processpaved the way for amore equal world –at least sartorially. Ithas been a long jour-ney. And now every-one wears pants!

Beauty is notone idea - it’s

While on one hand, soci-ety throws jibes andinsults at women in thebeauty industry, theother side has beenabout promoting stan-darised beauty ideals ofbeing thin and havinghairless perfect bodiesthat have impacted theconfidence of women

B arbie doll has hadtypical features of aslim body, long

blonde hair and a pretty poutfor a long time. The toy girlwas criticised by peopleendorsing values ofunhealthy beauty stereo-types. Gradually Barbiemoved beyond blondenessand was available in variousskin tones, body types, eyecolours, hair colours andhairstyles. Now, with debateon inclusive beauty idealsand also to accommodatepeople with disabilities, the

iconic brand has introduced aline with Barbie staying pret-ty but with different types ofdisabilities. Barbie’sToymaker Mattel worked ona doll that uses a wheel-chair and another one witha prosthetic leg. One more

Barbie from this collectionalso has vitiligo – (a skincondition that causes theloss of skin colour in blotch-es). It’s a step forwardtowards embracing inclusivenessin beauty.

We reimagined Barbieto include changing val-

ues of beauty and fashion tomake it more inclusive

KIM CULMONE, global head of design for Barbie

Cosmetics industry isa lucrative one and nota frivolous pursuit

Jhelum Biswas Bose

Isabella Dymalovski

WHO WEARS THE PANTS?

Women andmen, both

Photo: Getty images

Photo: Getty images