People love to tell others (read women) how to live. A woman could be running a country, but you’ll have a bunch of people telling her how she is doing it all wrong. Remember when Finland’s former Prime Minister Sanna Marin was trolled for partying like any normal 30-something-year-old woman would do?

And now, the internet is going after a child. A teenager, Prachi Nigam, from Sitapur, topped the UP Board with an impressive 98.5% in her Class X exams, but the flagbearers of the Indian beauty standards were focused on her facial hair.

A student of the Sita Bal Vidya Mandir Inter College, Prachi became a household name all thanks to her hard work and scores. Unfortunately, the beauty-obsessed Indian netizens decided to focus on her facial hair instead of her achievements. Twitter was rife with people telling Prachi to focus on her grooming and dressing sense. No one seemed to remember that Prachi is a child who should be prioritising her education over her appearance.

This is UP board topper Prachi Nigam and she scored 98.5%

She should focus on grooming herself as wellpic.twitter.com/HhlW5rahFC

— Ronak Misra (@RonakMisra) April 20, 2024

Bhai ab to ladki pass ho gayi na , ab bechari ko koi parlour le jaao #Sitapur #prachinigam

— JOLLYBOY (@tandi_joel) April 21, 2024

Ismein se prachi kon hai aur nigam kon hai?

— Jarvis (@Jarvis364453133) April 21, 2024

While her achievements should have been celebrated, her looks took centre stage and became fodder for trolls. As people started making fun of her appearance, it brought back an age-old question, “How long will a woman’s success take a backseat to her appearance?”

Giving some hope to an otherwise hopeless society we live in, many people were quick to jump to her defence. They rightly called out the trolls and were happy to educate them. While some people talked about how her facial hair could be a result of a condition like PCOS, others asked the trolls to switch their attention to what matters, viz. her massive achievement.

It's so easy for people to mock this young girl Prachi Nigam over her facial hair which may be due to hormonal imbalance. Have they ever thought how it can affect the little girl? pic.twitter.com/km7Gby2ern

— Rohit (@Iam_Rohit_G) April 21, 2024

Saw a UP Board Class 10 Topper Prachi Nigam.
She is excellent student scoring 98.5%.
Saw some so called Sigma,Dude type of guys making degrading comments on her looks. First of all those guys haven't top in their entire life or they're uneducated kid.

— DR.BABU BHAIYA (@chillinbro313) April 22, 2024

Prachi Nigam has topped the board but all that people have noticed is that she isn't groomed (isn't she a kid)
This is what every successful career woman goes through – being questioned of her looks, child rearing and house keeping
Reservations can't justify to ease this pressure

— Sunita Saldanha (@SMSnotliterally) April 22, 2024

No matter the mountain that women of our country climb, there will always be a man on the ground pointing at her, saying she could look better.

Shame on grown men reducing bright, young minds to the way they look. pic.twitter.com/XrV2j0ua3h

— Nikhil Taneja (@tanejamainhoon) April 21, 2024

To belittle someone to the point where they might start to question their own self-worth is despicable and devoid of any semblance of decency!! #UPtopper #PrachiNigam

— Grace (@4verBeyou) April 21, 2024

It’s nice to see people understand and lecturing other people on how insensitive it is to comment on Prachi Nigam about her looks but why are they quote posting her pic and making it viral??

— Sailing Cloud (@twinitisha) April 22, 2024

It’s easy to troll women and tell them nothing they do is ever enough. But when you do it to someone as young as Prachi Nigam, you subject her to a lifetime of self-esteem issues. The girl is doing what she should be doing, i.e. studying and creating a future for herself, instead of worrying about archaic beauty standards.

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