When Prachi Nigam topped the UP class-10 board exams, she expected that she, her family, her loved ones and the people around her would be ecstatic. Being trolled on social media over her facial hair was something she didn’t see coming. But then she was trolled, shamed, and criticized for apparently not taking care of her looks and grooming herself.
She is a teenager.
She saw her academic achievements get undermined. Soon, she regretted topping her board exams. She thinks if she would have scored less and would have ranked 3rd or 4th, people wouldn’t have paid attention to her. Now, even brands are using her harrowing social media experience as a marketing gimmick.
“If my marks would have been less, if I wouldn’t have been a topper, then perhaps I wouldn’t have been this famous and it would have been way better,” she said to BBC in an interview.
However, in the same interview, we see how matured Prachi Nigam has been in handling online trolling. She is well aware of how people tend to project their own insecurities onto others in this culture of trolling. It has nothing to do with her, but entirely to do with them and their insecurities.
On the other hand, she is also glad that people have come to her support, highlighting how hormonal abnormalities can cause facial hair in women. Prachi says that she did feel bad about the trolling but then she also understands why some people were shaming her in the first place – they were unaware of the medical conditions that can cause facial hair in women in the first place.
Some of Prachi’s biggest supporters have been her friends and classmates who are incredibly mature in understanding why people were behaving like this.
“Instead of looking at her talents, people are looking at her physical appearance,” said a girl named Priyanshi Singh.
Another classmate said, “This kind of trolling can affect her mentally. Her studies can get disturbed. And these people who are trolling her, do they think that they have the ability to qualify in any competitive exam?”
Prachi wants to become an engineer and she believes that it is only hard work that can take her forward in life, and not her looks. Attagirl!