Photo: TikTok
She has no regrets.
By Alice Kelly — Written on Oct 07, 2022
A mom on TikTok is defending herself after a video of her waxing her daughter’s eyebrows generated an enormous backlash.
Leah Garcia found herself at the center of heated parenting debates after she shared a video that has now amassed over 20 million views.
In the video, she waxed her 3-year-old daughter’s unibrow.
“Idc! [I don’t care]” Garcia wrote in the text on the video.
“I’d rather y’all call me a bad mom before I let my 3-year-old walk around with a unibrow like my parents did.”
In the video, she quickly waxes a patch of hair between her daughter’s brows and while the child briefly winces, she seems otherwise unaffected.
Comments were divided about the mom’s decision. Some users expressed their regret that their parents never did this for them, while others were critical.
“Girl! [You're] saving her from years of trauma and teasing,” noted one user.
“As soon as a parent points out a flaw it will stick with them forever,” countered another.
“Even if they are thankful, they’ll remember not being perfect for mom.”
Each side of the argument raises a fair point. Parents want to protect their kids from the cruelty of the world and, by anticipating what her daughter could be bullied for and correcting it, Garcia may have prevented future trauma.
But at what cost? Teaching a child to love all their “flaws” might be more valuable.
However, Garcia is just one woman who doesn't have the power to change beauty standards alone. Is she just protecting her daughter from what is inevitable in this world?
Garcia has been defending herself from the critics.
In one response video, she addresses a comment that states, “Conforming to beauty standards teaches them to care what others think.”
Garcia shares a video of her daughter saying that she is beautiful with or without her unibrow.
As the uproar continued, Garcia shared another lengthy response video.
“I would take the hate and the ridicule from millions of people, like I am now. I would take that right on the chin before I ever allowed my children to be hurt by somebody else’s words for something that I could fix,” she says.
She pointed out that the vitriol she received is one of the reasons she wanted to wax her daughter’s eyebrow — there is too much hate in the world to risk her daughter being mocked.
“I take pride in the way that I raise my children and the type of mom that I am,” she concludes.
“So if you don’t agree, that’s fine. I’m not your mom.”
Alice Kelly is YourTango’s Deputy News and Entertainment Editor. Based in Brooklyn, New York, her work covers all things social justice, pop culture, and human interest. Keep up with her Twitter for more.