A mum has experienced backlash after a video of her waxing her young daughter’s eyebrows prompted debate around parenting and reinforcing potentially harmful beauty standards.
Leah Garcia filmed herself using a waxing strip to tidy up toddler Bliss’s eyebrows back in 2022, originally writing: ‘I don’t care! I’d rather y’all call me a bad mum before I let my three-year-old walk around with a unibrow like my parents did!’
Now, two years later, Leah’s video has gone viral again after resurfacing on X, formerly Twitter – and many people have strong opinions.
‘Mothers are their daughters’ first bullies in a way,’ @shadwheart wrote, while @04041997x suggested we as a society should teach ‘our kids not to bully other kids’ instead.
‘My niece has a lil unibrow and I think it’s so freaking cute lol,’ commented @hiiipriestesss. ‘Why do we build complexes into other people?’
Another user, @0xJordan5555, added: ‘This girl is three years old. If she was a preteen, then yes absolutely help your child out, but this is a pre-schooler. They don’t care about this stuff yet.’
However, the majority of the responses to the resurfaced video were supportive of Leah’s parenting, and some even wished their folks had done the same for them when they were little.
‘As someone who grew up as a hairy kid and was bullied for having a moustache, I think this is completely fine,’ @brittanypls_ said. ‘I started getting waxed at 11 and if I could have started earlier, I would have.’
‘Everybody calm down. My mom would get my eyebrows waxed in the first grade, and I lived to tell the tale,’ @moriah_bridges wrote, while @courtneyknill said ‘I would absolutely not hesitate to pluck my kid’s eyebrows if they were growing in the middle.’
Following the backlash, Leah responded, disagreeing with the idea that she was projecting her own insecurities onto her daughter.
‘At the end of the day she’s human, and as much as we want to say what people say doesn’t bother you, it does,’ the mum told MailOnline.
‘It doesn’t hurt Bliss any more than pulling off a plaster, it’s just basic grooming. Unless you’ve struggled with it yourself you don’t know.’
For parenting expert Kirsty Ketley, waxing such a young child’s eyebrows marks a step too far – but she does have a degree of sympathy for Leah as a mother.
‘Her concerns are understandable when she has been victim to bullying as a child herself,’ she tells .
‘However, at three years old, this wouldn’t be an issue for her daughter. It’s tricky as a parent not to worry about our children, but it’s important to remember that how we have experienced life growing up won’t necessarily mean our children will experience the same.
‘When it comes to appearance, we should address those issues as they arise rather than assuming the worst and trying to pre-empt/fix a problem that may not be.’
Likewise, Kirsty feels strongly that parents shouldn’t be teaching their children to change their appearance in order to please others, recommending that they should ‘be celebrating their bodies, differences and all.’
But how can parents navigate sensitive topics surrounding appearance while safeguarding their children?
According to Kirsty, the key lies in thinking about the language used around them – and whether your tone evokes judgment.
‘Think about the message you are sending to your child,’ Kirsty says.
‘For older children, girls in particular, beauty standards are currently heavily influenced by what is seen on social media.
‘There are now so many beauty brands out there targeting tweens and teens, as well as the “get ready with me” trends where influencers and teen girls are sat applying skincare products and make-up and are hugely influential to young girls who are scrolling.’
This isn’t necessarily a negative thing, as Kirsty assures parents that experimenting is a normal ‘part of adolescence’ as it’s how we uncover our own identities.
‘However, ‘it shouldn’t be something that girls feel they have to do,’ she adds. ‘We want to be teaching kids to be happy in the skin they are in without makeup too.’
Despite some arguing that there’s a ‘magic age’ where children should be able to do things like wear makeup, child, adolescent and family therapist Fiona Yassin claims it’s far more nuanced.
‘[Things like] being allowed to wear makeup [are] a very personal decision within a family and their social system,’ Fiona tells , noting that the age at which children can do certain things – like wear makeup, remove their body hair or get piercings – might differ across cultures.
‘The most important rule of thumb for parents is that if it feels uncomfortable to your family, then it is not the right time,’ she adds. ‘If you have a child who’s taken a sudden liking to something, then it’s time to discuss these things.’
Fiona says that to effectively broach these conversations, parents should listen twice as much as they speak.
It’s also important to ensure you set a good example to kids, which means behaviour you’d be happy for them to mirror – because they inevitably will.
‘One of the things we do know is that from a very early age, children like to copy what they see their parents and older siblings do,’ Fiona explains. ‘We learn by watching the world around us and the same goes for body-image-related things such as makeup, fitness and dieting.’
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