TROLLS flooded the comments on a mom's TikTok video when she demonstrated her method for waxing her toddler daughter's eyebrows.
Even though she was slammed for her decision, the mom defended her choice, and said she just wants her daughter to "feel good."
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Leah Garcia, 31, lives in Texas with her two daughters, three-year-old Bliss, and 11-year-old Behautti.
When Leah was a child, she was ridiculed for having thick and dark hair, as well as a prominent unibrow.
Intent on preventing her daughters from suffering the same cruelty, she waxes the eyebrows of both her preteen and toddler daughters – a process that went viral when she recorded it for TikTok.
Leah said that Bliss was just over two when she started getting the same beauty treatment as her mom and sister.
"Bliss would always see me wax her older sister’s eyebrows so asked me if she could have it done too," Leah explained.
The toddler didn't seem to be insecure, Leah added – just curious.
"She asked two or three times before I finally gave in, but she never said 'I have a unibrow,' she just showed an interest in it," she said.
"We have a waxing day each week as I have to wax once a week, so when I do it, I ask if anyone wants eyebrow waxing and if they say no, I don’t do it," the mom continued.
Leah's critics have accused her of fostering insecurity in her daughter or doing physical harm to her, but she insists the wax strips hurt the same as pulling off a bandage.
“People say I'm projecting my own insecurities onto her, and that I should teach her not to care what people think," Leah said. "But 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 mom also pointed out that what's seen as "basic grooming" for adults should be fully available to children, and compared to taking her child for a haircut.
"I've never seen an adult walking around with a unibrow because they love it so much," she said. "When people say 'why are you doing that?' I say 'well I guarantee you don’t enjoy having a unibrow.'"
Commenters told Leah she was messing up her kids' self-esteem for life.
"As soon as a parent points out a flaw it will stick with them forever," one viewer said. "Even if they are thankful, they’ll remember not being perfect for mom."
"Yes, because we need to teach our children to care what others think of us," wrote another.
But hundreds of commenters also said they grew up with unibrows and wished their parents had done the same for them.
"A viral influencer used my TikTok video and called me a bad parent and was really negative, but to me, this is just basic grooming if you are hairy," Leah added.
The mom remembered some criticism coming from her own family: "We have very thick hairs which are from my Hispanic roots.
"I am very hairy, and I remember being younger and none of my siblings were as hairy as me and they would make fun of me."
"The video has done what I wanted it to," Leah said. "I knew there would be backlash, but I'm open to hearing people's opinions."
"If they grow up and want thick eyebrows again, it's easy to come back from, but being bullied is something you don’t come back from and I'm preventing it from happening in the first place.
"I'm not training her to be insecure," Leah said. "I just want my daughter to feel good."
