In a time when everyone is embracing their natural selves, celebrities all over the world are coming forward and urging women to be comfortable in their skin by sharing their own stories. One such celebrity is Shikha Talsania who was last seen showing her support towards the #LetsBreakTheRulesOfBeauty campaign with Dove and Grazia. The actress recently penned a letter calling out to all the body-shamers, coming out confidently to talk about the biases she has faced.

shikha talsania shattering beauty stereotypes

The past few months have been rather surprising for the ‘Veere Di Wedding’ actress as her body has been celebrated as “brave, inspiring and beautiful.” These remarks she says “have been startling because I’m in the business of being called ‘slightly bigger’, ‘heavier’, ‘healthy’, ‘fat’ etc. every other day.” These contrast images of her body made her realise that she shares a very different relationship with her body than most of us. It took her a long time and soul searching to find this healthy relationship.

shikha talsania shattering beauty stereotypes

Like most chubby kids she too was bullied in school “for being fat and being a fat actor’s daughter” she says. Right from receiving unsolicited advice from aunts and uncles to being called sisu or mercury (the heaviest metal) by her cousins she didn’t have it easy. However, that didn’t affect her dream of becoming an actress. In fact she learned to categorise these remarks as “whether to educate people, ignore them or to school them,” she writes.

shikha talsania shattering beauty stereotypes

Body-shaming is all around us–advertisements, comedy shows and what not. However, she is thankful that although slowly, the game is changing due to some who are challenging all sorts of labels associated with body-shaming. In this letter, Talsania concludes by saying, “call out the body-shamers. Be nice, always. Words hurt. Be cognizant of what you say, what you teach, what you watch.”