A Texas mom recently went viral on TikTok for waxing her young daughter's unibrow. In the clip, Leah Garcia from Plainview wrote, "I don't care! I don't care! I'd rather y'all call me a bad mom before I let my 3-year-old walk around with a unibrow like my parents did!" While she's receiving a lot of love for her actions, she's also gaining hate. Here's why I understand what she did.
Background on the video
The video received more than 27 million views and 3.5 million likes as of Wednesday, October 12. Since she posted it on October 3, Garcia has gained lots of love and praise from many, but she's also being slammed for her actions. Some people in comments wrote, "I would just to know did she actually have a problem with it or was it just you" and "as soon as a parent points out a flaw it will stick with them forever."
Garcia eventually posted a follow-up video about the waxing, after receiving thousands and thousands of comments on the OG video. She said in the video, "I would take the hate and the ridicule from millions of people – like I am now, I would take that right on the chin before I ever allowed my children to be hurt by somebody's else words for something that I can fix so easy."
In an interview with TODAY, Garcia said she's preventing future bullies from targeting her daughter. She added, "As a child, I had very thick and dark eyebrows and I'd shave behind my parents' back because my father didn't believe children should worry about things like that. I remember a boy saying to me in kindergarten, 'Why are your eyebrows so big?'"
Wishing to spare Bliss and her 11-year-old sister Behautti from similar embarrassment, Garcia started waxing their unibrows when they turned 3, with their permission.
Here's why I understand what she did
Since Garcia's video, the debate online is arguing whether she was right or wrong. However, the answer to that (to me) is based on personal beliefs and experience – and that's OK. Garcia said she's doing what she thinks is best for her children. You can too. Whether it's shaving it off, teaching your children about beauty standards (of which hair removal plays a large role) or waiting until they can do it themselves when older.
As a Latina woman, I relate to her. Growing up, I too had a thick, black unibrow up until the 6th grade. Other children did bully me and called me hairy, ugly, and a boy. Like Garcia, I shaved my eyebrows off behind my parents' back once my cousin taught me how to shave my legs.
Unlike Garcia, I went too far and shaved off too much of my eyebrows on accident. To paint the picture, I just grabbed the shaver and took off the unibrow and the beginning part of my eyebrows on both sides. They were very short.
In school, I was still called names but this time it was for having some messed up eyebrows. As punishment, my mom took away my shaver and allowed my eyebrows to grow back. To this day they don't look the same but thankfully waxing and plucking have helped.
Yes, Frida Kahlo rocked the unibrow and many others can too, but I wished my parents did that for me. It would have saved me from the bullying in the first place, as well as shaving off almost all of my brows.
You can watch the video below:
Oct 13, 2022
Senior Trending Reporter
Born and raised in San Antonio, Priscilla knows her city well. She has a B.A. in Communications from UIW and has been with the Express-News and MySA since 2019. Priscilla loves writing about hikes, parks and weird sea (and land) creatures in San Antonio and Texas.
