Mother Shaves 12-Year-Old Daughter’s Facial Hair So Bullies Won't Ridicule Her

Jul 17, 2023

The American Psychological Association defined bullying as aggressive behavior in which someone intentionally and repeatedly causes another person injury or discomfort. Bullying is not a one-way action; it can take several forms, including physical contact, words, or more subtle actions. 

Verbal bullying involves teasing, purposeful humiliation, and threatening, while physical bullying involves kicking, shoving and hitting. A third form of bullying is relational, which involves spreading hurtful rumors and social exclusion.

Bullying is usually directed at vulnerable individuals who have trouble defending themselves and do nothing to cause the bullying. The vulnerability of bullied students could range from their physical appearance to being part of a marginalized group or race. 

This implies that several kids suffer from bias-based bullying, which mainly targets a person or group of people because of characteristics of their identity, like language, ability, gender identity, race, and body size, among others. 

Kids who are subjected to bullying may gradually withdraw from activities that are of interest to them. They may disengage from school, isolate themselves, and, in extreme cases, try to self-harm. Bullied kids need help and guidance from teachers, senior school administrators, and parents. Often, the school might be subtle in addressing the bully, but since no parent wants their child to be downtrodden, the approach from parents to stop bullying is usually proactive. 

One such case was Vidya Gopalan, a North Carolina mother who took to TikTok on May 25, 2023, to share a video of her measures to shield her 12-year-old daughter, Sahana, from bullies. Continue reading to see what Gopalan did to prevent her daughter from getting bullied.

Gopalan recognized that her daughter might suffer from bias-based bullying, and the 38-year-old North Carolina mom immediately took proactive measures. She figured that her daughter's thick eyebrows and facial hair might make her an easy target for bullies. 

To prevent this, the mother of two shaved her daughter's eyebrows and upper lip hair. In a video Gosplan shared on TikTok, she was seen shaving her daughter's facial hair with a portable razor. 

"Ain't no way you are getting bullied for your beautiful thick Indian brows," Gopalan wrote in the clip. 

From the mother and daughter interaction, it was clear that Gopalan was proactive in shaving her daughter's facial hair because she was in a similar position as a teen. But unlike her daughter, Gopalan's mother refused to let her shave her eyebrows.

"I remember getting made fun of when I was your age," Gopalan said and noted that she also had thick facial hair.  

When her daughter asked why she didn't shave her face from a young age, Gopalan responded: 

"Because my mom didn't let me."

She wrote in the video's caption: "Most gorgeous brows EVER."

The video has since gone viral and garnered over 30 million views, with thousands of comments praising Gopalan for shaving her daughter's hair.

"This warms my heart!! i got teased so much and my mom didn't let me get my brows waxed till my freshman year of high school," one commenter wrote.

"We love moms like this ❤️," another wrote.

"i'm arab and i also got made fun of for my brows when i was little, wish my mom let me do this 😭," a third commenter wrote.

What do you think of Vidya Gopalan shaving her daughter’s thick eyebrows and facial hair? Would you do the same for your daughter? How do you handle bullies? Can you relate to her video? Let us know — and be sure to pass this article on to friends and family members.