“Hey, can you please click this picture again as I don’t like my left profile?” I’m quite we all may have said this to someone at least once in our lifetime. In this race to get the perfect ‘gram-worthy shot’, we fail to notice how easily we discard parts of ourselves. Actress Vidya Balan admits she has gone through this realization, and shared a powerful message for every self-conscious woman or man! As someone who has been under constant glare of media, judged for how she looks and what she wears, she has finally learned to just be herself. Instead of trying to fit the bill, she has chosen to accept herself and embrace all her parts with equal aplomb.

Vidya Balan recently took to her social media to share a short but significant incident that provoked her to reflect on the need for body acceptance and self love.

At an event, a girl reached out to her for a photograph, and she politely obliged. Minutes later, the girl came rushing back for another picture, saying, “Galat side se liya, main achchi nahi lag rahi ,yeh post nahi kar paungi.”

The girl was relentless in her pursuit to get the perfect shot with the actress and even followed her through the crowd to her car. Vidya gave into her to perpetual requests, however, it reminded of the days when she struggled with body and ‘profile’ issues.

Vidya Balan talks about body image issues

Today’s unrealistic beauty standards and the pressure of social media have left us with no choice but to battle in this race of “looking perfect”.

Some ways or the other, we all have become victims to live up to society’s beauty standards by concealing parts of ourselves that don’t match them.

Sharing her own trajectory, Vidya said, “You know I’ve always preferred my left profile over my right. But over time, as I started on this journey of trying to love and accept myself a little more each day, I realized that liking one profile meant liking one part of me to the exclusion of the other… because the truth is I not only liked my left but disliked my right profile.”

Isn’t it the same case for all of us? Panic sets in immediately when we realize the world has seen some parts of us that don’t look near-perfect.

However, Vidya has grown to accept every part of herself, complete with all her flaws and imperfections. She shared an unfiltered picture of herself sans make-up, showcasing both of her profiles in full glory. It surely tells us that she has stopped caring about the angles of her shoots and feels more beautiful and confident in herself.

Also read: Body shaming can wreck your mental health! But these tips from 5 influential women can help

“I like me just the way I am,” asserts Vidya Balan

The love Vidya has for herself strongly reminds us that sometimes in life, if we shift our perspective towards certain things, our entire outlook starts radiating positivity. Like in her case, her right profile is still the same, However, she changed the way she looked at herself and that was game-changing for her.

Through self love and acceptance of who we are, we can always learn to stay confident in our own skin. We can only expect the world to accept us if we embrace every part of us.

In an interview, she once said, “There is no end to rejecting your body and spending a lifetime doing that. But what really happens, it is not your body’s fault, your body needs at least one person on its side, and I said to myself that this is my body, and I love it”.

We’re all for being raw, unfiltered and be unapologetically ourselves!