Body-shaming and bullying starts young. Expecting children to fit into society’s ridiculous beauty standards is the foundation of so many women hating their own
body in the present-day scenario.
The same happened with me too. Being called names like ‘Bhains’, meaning Buffalo, at an impressionable age makes you question everything that you are,
makes you question your individuality.
I spent my teenage years trying to hide my real self behind layers and layers of clothing, and my early twenties trying to desperately reduce weight and make my
skin lighter. Companies selling skin-lightening products made a good business out of me back then. Buying clothes online was a headache, that pretty much ended
up by me berating my own body for being ‘disproportional’. I would keep asking myself ‘how come none of the models have a big hip?’
The usual answer that I gave myself was, ‘because it is not NORMAL’.
The moment I realized how incredibly harsh I was being to my own self and my body, I realized I had to take a step and do something to address this issue.
I wanted to sell clothes that would make every single woman feel good about themselves. I wanted to make clothes that were versatile, comfortable, and
gorgeous!! And I wanted to smash the idea that models were supposed to only be tall, fair, and skinny.
And keeping this notion as the foundation, UNTOUCHED was born.
We chose the name ‘Untouched’ because we wanted women to never have to alter themselves to fit into our clothes, we wanted women to be their absolute proud
naked self, we wanted them to be ‘untouched’ by the absurd and unreasonable societal standards.
We worked with women representing every single body type so our customers could relate to them. I myself have modeled for my brand hoping women with big
hips out there won’t feel ‘disproportional’ or ‘not normal’ anymore; hoping they won’t go through self-hatred like I did.
Let’s strive to fall in love with our own selves. Let’s stand up and own who we truly are. In doing so, we will see others get attracted to us like white on rice. Let’s
experience intimacy and self-love on a whole new level.
Few words on self-love written by me:
“She stands there
Alone and neglected
Craving a loving touch
Craving solace.
Go back
Go back to her
You owe this
you owe it to her
You owe it to yourself.
Remember that day
Your mother hit you?
She cried with you
She suffered with you.
Remember that day
He called you beautiful?
You were so happy
And she was happy for you.
You wanted to travel the world
She took you with herself.
You have let her down
But she keeps working to her best.
Through broken bones, broken heart
Flu and cold, she has been with you.
Love her, love your body
What a clever thing it is
What a beautiful person you are.”
In picture and written by Debasri Deb Founder and Owner of Untouched