SINCE 2015, BRITISH model Harnaam Kaur has been flying the flag for body positivity and turning the traditional notion of what a model can look like upside down.
Why? Because she has a beard. Kaur suffers from Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, a condition that causes a hormonal imbalance, and has had facial hair since she was 11 years old.
Last night, she appeared on The Late Late Show to share her story of being body-shamed and bullied as a teenager, and how she came to achieve body acceptance.
Kaur explained to Ryan that she spent years trying to fit in and removed her facial hair quite dilligently as a teenager, before eventually accepting her body as it was.
I was threading, waxing, bleaching my facial hair. I was too young to go through electrolysis and laser treatment. But I think when I did hit the age of 18, I had already accepted my body for the way that it was and didn’t really need to go down the route of laser treatment because I was happy.
Kaur explained that she grew out the beard after a period of being bullied and feeling suicidal.
I thought, ‘Hang on a second. I can’t let these bullies win. Why should I live my life in regards to other people’s opinions of me?’ And I was 16 years old and I decided, well, the negative energy I’m going to turn into positive energy and I’m going to grasp hold of my life and I’m going to live it the way I want to live it.
And that’s when I grew out my beard at the age of 16.
And now she’s walked the catwalk at London Fashion Week, an experience that she described as being akin to “sticking two fingers up at my bullies and saying, ‘Thank you!’”
Irish viewers took to social media to praise Kaur’s courage, confidence and message of body positivity.
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Wonderful.
