Model Natalia Castellar Was Bullied Over Her Thick Eyebrows: It Was ‘Difficult for Me to Embrace Myself’
Big brows may be in now — but when Natalia Castellar was growing up in Virginia, her classmates couldn’t see the beauty in her most prominent feature.
The teen model, who was born in Puerto Rico, said she was continually bullied for having thick, dark eyebrows. She told W magazine, “They were all anyone would point out.”
“I had a lot of self-esteem issues,” Castellar, 17, explained to the Huffington Post. The teasing was so harsh at times that Castellar contemplated shaving them.
But those insecurities disappeared once Castellar’s photographer sister started posting photos of her to social media, she told W. She’s now signed as a model with Next Models agency and has posed for Nars and Mansur Gavriel.
“Now I don’t care if they stay trendy or not, I love my eyebrows,” she told W. “They set me aside from other models. They’re my trademark, and I wish I would have embraced them sooner.”
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She told Huffington Post that she’s come to see her bushy brows as “a total advantage” and part of what makes her “a great model.” She explained, “They play a huge role in attracting attention from both fans and potential clients.”
Castellar also encouraged other women to embrace their natural looks, saying, “We need to realize that just because someone’s beauty is different than our own doesn’t mean we’re not beautiful. We need to embrace our diversity and celebrate what makes us, us!”
