Topping your board transforms you into a celebrity overnight. There are reporters asking you questions, distant relations emerging out of nowhere, and you shake so many hands you begin to think it should count as an Olympic sport. Your face is everywhere, from the school gate to every WhatsApp group your parents are on, in the newspapers and of course, on social media. 

The events that unfolded on the latter ensured that Prachi Nigam would receive more coverage than any other UP Board topper. Following the announcement of her result, Prachi’s photo went viral with many trolling her for her facial hair. The vitriol directed at her ranged from Internet trolls misgendering her, creating satirical dating profiles, and commenting on her appearance relentlessly. As if the young girl has disrupted the peaceful universe of conventional beauty standards our society has created and abides by. “If I had scored less marks, I would not have topped and become famous. Maybe that would have been better,” Prachi said in an interview to BBC Hindi.  

The vitriol directed at Prachi Nigam ranged from Internet trolls misgendering her, creating satirical dating profiles, and commenting on her appearance relentlessly. As if the young girl has disrupted the peaceful universe of conventional beauty standards our society has created and abides by. “If I had scored less marks, I would not have topped and become famous. Maybe that would have been better,” Prachi had eventually said.

The situation reflects wider issues, including how the lack of accountability with online trolling emboldens people to harass a child. Further, the nature of the harassment that Prachi received embodies the impossible beauty standards we impose on women and their sheer inescapability. 

Those who came out in support of Prachi emphasised how women have body hair and that it is normal. Some used this opportunity to speak up about health conditions such as PCOS that may lead to hormone imbalance, hirsutism, weight gain, etc. While this discourse creates awareness, it is saddening that for such conversations to come to mainstream, a young girl had to receive untoward attention. 

What has to be said is that even well-meaning medical advice for Prachi and offers to help with her treatment shifts conversations away from her achievement and simply enforce the same traditional expectations, albeit packed kindly. In my opinion, even if Prachi had chosen to grow a moustache for no reason other than she wanted one, or decided to dye her hair purple or spray paint herself green, none of that should take away from her achievements. 

The construct of beauty is so much larger than aspirational physical appearance. Often, people tend to equate it with morality, intellect and success, which is the rhetoric that caused people to bully Prachi in the first place. When those who trolled her saw someone who did not conform to their ideas of beauty, they concluded that she, therefore, should not be successful either and reduced her to her facial hair. 

This incident also brings to light an unpleasant truth. Girls grow up being taught that if they aren’t ‘pretty enough’ they can always strive for the consolation prize of being extra intelligent or funny or other such virtues to make up for it. Prachi herself says that “Eventually it will be marks that matter, not my hair” But she has already gotten the marks and proven herself by ranking 1st among 5,50,000. Yet in the discourse surrounding her, the hyperfixation is on her appearance. 

The notion of ‘everyone is beautiful’ continues to put beauty on a pedestal as something to be striven for. From what I see, part of what infuriated people about Prachi is not that they could find fault with her appearance, but that they viewed it as ‘easily remediable ‘, and could not fathom her choice not to do so. After all, we cannot say all women have body hair without acknowledging that most women remove said body hair. Besides, it largely ignores the financial aspect of beauty standards. While there were some on social media who generously offered to fund or contribute towards the treatments, it is telling that there were far less offers made towards supporting her academic and career aspirations. 

The notion of ‘Everyone is beautiful’ continues to put beauty on a pedestal as something to be striven for. From what I see, part of what infuriated people about Prachi is not that they could find fault with her appearance, but that they viewed it as ‘easily remediable ‘, and could not fathom her choice not to do so.

This narrative has another flip, as a X user observed. They highlighted that if it were a girl who had on makeup and satisfied conventional beauty standards, the same people would be quick to shame her and discount her achievements anyway. In fact, some of the praises that Prachi has received, for ‘not being shallow’ and ‘caring about her studies, not her appearance, reflects the truth in this.

Topping my district in Boards examination is one of my fondest memories and my heart breaks for Prachi whose first milestone achievement is tainted. The incident has made me reflect on what I would have otherwise deemed insignificant. I remember being at the award ceremony with the other girls and discussing whether our lip gloss made us look more put together or less studious, and reporters telling us to pull our hair back and cover our shoulders. Even in our case, where others did not make our appearances a focal point, it was so ingrained in us to worry about it no matter what we may achieve. 

As Manjiri Indurkar writes for The Indian Express on this issue, “It isn’t about inner beauty vs outer beauty. It’s only about how we can’t seem to stop talking about beauty. And even though the discourse on social media tells us we are all beautiful, I wonder if life would be easier if no one was looking at the label of beautiful at all. Would it be easier if I just decided to not want to look beautiful?”