A lot of us have starved ourselves, gone through brutal grooming processes and wore things that have made our souls scream in pain. We have done all of this because we’re told quite early in life that it’s normal to suffer in agony to look ‘beautiful’. We are made to believe that unrealistic beauty standards set by society and what we see on screen are something that we need to maintain at all costs. Well, not just us, but even celebrities have fallen into this trap and thought that it’s actually true. Global icon and actress Priyanka Chopra-Jonas recently opened up about the time when she thought that these toxic beauty standards were actually normal.
As the inaugural member of The VS Collective, the actress recently appeared as the first guest at VS Voices, the brand’s new podcast. In the interview with host Amanda de Cadenet, PC revealed that she considered for the longest time that creating a false image of perfection was normal.
Priyanka shared that as a part of the entertainment industry, she thought that she had to have a ‘perfect body’ to look good. She said, “Obviously, being raised in the industry and having such a tight lens on what my shape was, what my figure was or what my measurements were, minutely looking at every part of me, I kind of grew up for a while in my 20s, thinking that was normal. Like most young people, where you think about these unrealistic standards of beauty, which is like, absolutely Photoshopped face, perfect hair. I never used my natural texture for years. I used to always just have blown out hair.”
She also revealed that she didn’t get time to realise that these problematic beauty standards were affecting her as a human. “I learnt everything that was thrown at me at such a fast speed that I just imbibed the headlines in a way. I didn’t have time to delve deep into what it was doing to me, the person, not me, the public figure,” she added.
After her father’s unfortunate demise in 2013, PC took her time to grieve and heal. She sought solace in food and while talking about it, she said, “I think over time when my body started changing and I went through that phase when I was eating my emotions.”
She also revealed that it was a dark phase in her life because netizens trolled her for her life choices, her age and her appearance. She said, “I reached my 30s, I went through struggle because I used to get online grief from people like, ‘You are looking different, you are ageing’, this and that. It messed with my mind at that time. My mind was already in such a dark place and I didn’t have time for it. My relationship with social media changed, my relationship with the internet changed… I incubated myself in a way where I protected myself, I went into my Cancerian self-preservation self and got back into my shell.”
Dealing with the loss of a loved one is one of the toughest things to do in life. It’s making us furious to imagine that PC had to deal with this negativity while going through such a difficult phase in life. We are glad that she’s in a better place now and while talking about it, she said, “Every one of us will go through our ups and downs, but eventually, the sooner we start choosing ourselves, the better life becomes.”
We have said it before and we will say it again, we need to do away with the unrealistic standards of beauty. They can lead to low self-esteem, negative thinking and affect impressionable minds.
On that note, kudos to PC for getting real about her ordeals, inspiring us to become the best version of ourselves!
Featured Image: Instagram
