A 27-year-old woman, who is called “disgusting” for the colour of her armpits, has hit back at trolls after “years” of covering her hyperpigmentation.
Victoria Esteves, whose underarms are darker than the rest of her skin, has shared a powerful message on Instagram after receiving a flurry of nasty comments from social media users.
The content creator says trolls make mean quips such as “they must smell horrible”.
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But she is determined not to let it get her down.
“Dark armpits are a completely normal thing for many people and have absolutely no correlation with hygiene,” Victoria, from Havasu City, Arizona, told What’s The Jam.
“The most extreme comments are the ones calling my armpits ‘disgusting’ or suggesting that they must smell horrible, which doesn’t make sense to me at all.
“Some people assume I don’t shave and criticize me for that, even though that’s got nothing to do with it.
“It’s frustrating because shaving only contributed to the darkening of my armpits in the first place.
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“It’s just one of those things that happens, but people don’t always understand that.”
Victoria noticed the colour of her armpits when she was just 13.
She said: “I was so young when I first became aware of it.
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“It wasn’t something I noticed until then, but I became more self-conscious as I realized they were darker than the skin on the rest of my body.
“At that age, I was still able to hide it pretty well, so people didn’t comment much on it.
“However, when I started posting pictures on social media showing my natural self, that’s when the comments started rolling in.”
Victoria said at first the trolls made her feel “pretty awful.”
She said: “I felt disgusted, ashamed, and really self-conscious.
“My confidence took a huge hit, and I even started trying out a variety of remedies to lighten the dark spots, but nothing seemed to work.
“It made me question if there was something wrong with me, or if I was somehow ‘less than’ because my body didn’t meet certain beauty standards.”
But now, she feels great about her armpits – and herself.
She said: “At one point, I was deeply self-conscious about the hyperpigmentation and tried so many different ‘remedies’ to get rid of it.
“Let me tell you, those turmeric soap bars didn’t do a thing!
“But over time, I realised that this is just part of who I am.
“My skin, my body, everything, it’s mine, and it’s beautiful.
“I’ve learned to embrace and love it exactly as it is.
“That journey of acceptance has been freeing and empowering.”
And she doesn’t plan on changing herself for anyone.
She said: “In fact, I feel more liberated than ever.
“For a long time, I was hiding parts of myself to meet some arbitrary standard of “perfection,” but now, I don’t feel the need to do that.
“It was exhausting and ultimately unhealthy for me.
“I want to continue sharing my story, not only to feel better about myself but to help others who might be struggling with similar insecurities.
“There are so many women, and men, out there who feel just like I did, and I want to be part of the change that encourages self-acceptance and body positivity.”
Victoria also advocates for body positivity across the board, sharing clips of her wrinkles and stomach, and close-up shots of her skin.
In one Instagram post, which has garnered 39,000 likes, she shows the difference between her body in 2021 and her body this year, explaining how much more confident she is now, and that she doesn’t edit her pictures anymore to hide her hyperpigmentation.
She said: “We’re conditioned to believe that there’s only one way to be ‘beautiful’ and anything outside of that can lead to shame and self-doubt.
“It took me a long time to realise that embracing natural imperfections, like my armpits, is a way of rejecting those harmful standards.
“We don’t have to look a certain way to be worthy of love, acceptance, and respect.
“I hope that by sharing my story, others can begin to see their own unique features as beautiful too, because they are.”
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