Está bien no estar bien

Hasanga sufrió bullying durante mucho tiempo por tener un aspecto diferente, hasta que la campaña «La belleza viene en todas las formas, tallas y colores» la inspiró. Ahora ha dejado de intentar cambiar su apariencia para complacer a los demás, y ha empezado a crear su propia versión de la belleza.
Sri Lanka, Southern Asia

Story by Hasanga Gagalagamuwe. Translated by Ana Arnaiz Rojo
Published on October 14, 2022.

This story is also available in GB de it



Como toda mi familia tiene el pelo rizado, yo nací también con pelo rizado. No me gustaba nada. Era la única que tenía ese tipo de pelo; tanto en la guardería, como en primaria, secundaria y universidad. Siempre he querido tener el pelo liso o, al menos, ondulado como las demás, para poder peinarlo como quisiera. Como era diferente al resto, nadie me veía guapa. Se reían de mí, me torturaban y me hacían sentirme menos valorada e importante. Como todos pensaban igual y no había nadie que me apoyase o se opusiera a la idea de que yo era fea, acabé creyéndomelo. 

No se me olvidará nunca el día en que me llamaron «FEA» a la cara por primera vez. Me tragué las lágrimas hasta que pasaron de largo y pude llorar sola. No podía entender sus llamados «estándares de belleza», que me hacían sentir tan marginada. Desde entonces, muchas personas me han vuelto a llamar fea a la cara, y también a mis espaldas, y yo les daba la razón indirectamente cada vez que me mordía la lengua. Nunca me defendí y, créeme, eso es lo que fortalecía sus torturas e insultos. Pero dentro de mí, lo que realmente quería hacer era gritarles a todos que yo también tengo corazón y que no soy fea como ellos creen.

Dejé de intentar cambiar mi apariencia según las preferencias de los demás, y empecé a crear mi propia versión de la belleza.

Gracias a la globalización, no me fue difícil encontrar a algunas personas que inspiraron a las víctimas del «BODY SHAMING», o «crítica del cuerpo», en todo el mundo. [1] Su campaña bajo el lema «La belleza viene en todas las formas, tallas y colores» [2], se convirtió en una luz esperanzadora para mí. Esta inspiración consiguió que poco a poco me fuera sintiendo más segura y guapa que nunca. Dejé de intentar cambiar mi apariencia según las preferencias de los demás, y empecé a crear mi propia versión de la belleza. Después de un tiempo, cuando recogí todos los pedacitos de mí misma, me fortalecí y empecé a afrontar y a amar mi naturaleza única, así como a mi propia creación de la chica más feliz, relajada y bonita que jamás había visto. Desde entonces, he sido la chica más guapa que conozco y, como consecuencia, la gente de mi alrededor también me empezó a ver como la «chica guapa».

Por fin me encontré a mí misma siendo una inspiración contra la crítica del cuerpo, después de tantos años de trauma por culpa de este mismo movimiento. En la actualidad, muchos de mis compañeros, grupo universitario[3] y amigos aceptan mis consejos y trucos de belleza para sentirnos guapos y seguros de nosotros mismos.

Intenta crear tu mejor versión interior y llena tu corazón de bondad.

Deja que te diga una cosa; si alguna vez has sentido inseguridad, no olvides que no es nuestra apariencia lo que cuenta, es nuestro interior. Así que, intenta crear tu mejor versión interior y llena tu corazón de bondad. Y nunca olvides que el mundo necesita DIVERSIDAD. En este mundo, todos somos bellos a nuestra manera. No existe eso de la «BELLEZA PERFECTA DE PHOTOSHOP». Todos tenemos nuestras inseguridades; incluso los famosos tienen inseguridades. Por lo tanto, no hay nada de lo que avergonzarnos. Acéptate tal como eres. Una vez que empieces a aceptarte, el mundo también lo hará. Así que no cambies por nadie. Cambia por TI y siéntete orgulloso de tu belleza única.

Como me dijo una vez una persona sabia: «Está bien no estar bien».


[1] El creador de contenido Dharr Mann es la inspiración principal de mi vida.

[2] Dharr usa esta cita como tema para algunos de sus vídeos.

[3] Los grupos universitarios son gente que todavía no se ha graduado y lee en varios grados universitarios del mismo grupo.


How does this story make you feel?

Follow-up

Do you have any questions after reading this story? Do you want to follow-up on what you've just read? Get in touch with our team to learn more! Send an email to
[email protected].

Talk about this Story

Please enable cookies to view the comments powered by Disqus.

Share your story

Every story we share is another perspective on a complex topic like migration, gender and sexuality or liberation. We believe that these personal stories are important to better understand what's going on in our globalised society - and to better understand each other. That's because we are convinced that the more we understand about each other, the easier it will be for us to really talk to one another, to get closer - and to maybe find solutions for the issues that affect us all. 

Do you want to share your story? Then have a look here for more info.

Share Your Story

Subscribe to our Monthly Newsletter

Stay up to date with new stories on Correspondents of the World by subscribing to our monthly newsletter:

* indicates required

Follow us on Social Media

Hasanga Gagalagamuwe

Hasanga Gagalagamuwe

I am a G17 University Ambassador who works for the goal 11: Sustainable Communities and cities in Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka. I am a simple human being who is always willing to help and support others.

Other Stories in Español




Show all

Get involved

At Correspondents of the World, we want to contribute to a better understanding of one another in a world that seems to get smaller by the day - but somehow neglects to bring people closer together as well. We think that one of the most frequent reasons for misunderstanding and unnecessarily heated debates is that we don't really understand how each of us is affected differently by global issues.

Our aim is to change that with every personal story we share.

Share Your Story

Community Worldwide

Correspondents of the World is not just this website, but also a great community of people from all over the world. While face-to-face meetings are difficult at the moment, our Facebook Community Group is THE place to be to meet other people invested in Correspondents of the World. We are currently running a series of online-tea talks to get to know each other better.

Join Our Community

EXPLORE TOPIC Liberation

Global Issues Through Local Eyes

We are Correspondents of the World, an online platform where people from all over the world share their personal stories in relation to global development. We try to collect stories from people of all ages and genders, people with different social and religious backgrounds and people with all kinds of political opinions in order to get a fuller picture of what is going on behind the big news.

Our Correspondents

At Correspondents of the World we invite everyone to share their own story. This means we don't have professional writers or skilled interviewers. We believe that this approach offers a whole new perspective on topics we normally only read about in the news - if at all. If you would like to share your story, you can find more info here.

Share Your Story

Our Editors

We acknowledge that the stories we collect will necessarily be biased. But so is news. Believing in the power of the narrative, our growing team of awesome editors helps correspondents to make sure that their story is strictly about their personal experience - and let that speak for itself.

Become an Editor

Vision

At Correspondents of the World, we want to contribute to a better understanding of one another in a world that seems to get smaller by the day - but somehow neglects to bring people closer together as well. We think that one of the most frequent reasons for misunderstanding and unnecessarily heated debates is that we don't really understand how each of us is affected differently by global issues.

Our aim is to change that with every personal story we share.

View Our Full Vision & Mission Statement

Topics

We believe in quality over quantity. To give ourselves a focus, we started out to collect personal stories that relate to our correspondents' experiences with six different global topics. However, these topics were selected to increase the likelihood that the stories of different correspondents will cover the same issues and therefore illuminate these issues from different perspectives - and not to exclude any stories. If you have a personal story relating to a global issue that's not covered by our topics, please still reach out to us! We definitely have some blind spots and are happy to revise our focus and introduce new topics at any point in time. 

Environment

Discussions about the environment often center on grim, impersonal figures. Among the numbers and warnings, it is easy to forget that all of these statistics actually also affect us - in very different ways. We believe that in order to understand the immensity of environmental topics and global climate change, we need the personal stories of our correspondents.

Gender and Sexuality

Gender is the assumption of a "normal". Unmet expectations of what is normal are a world-wide cause for violence. We hope that the stories of our correspondents will help us to better understand the effects of global developments related to gender and sexuality, and to reveal outdated concepts that have been reinforced for centuries.

Migration

Our correspondents write about migration because it is a deeply personal topic that is often dehumanized. People quickly become foreigners, refugees - a "they". But: we have always been migrating, and we always will. For millions of different reasons. By sharing personal stories about migration, we hope to re-humanize this global topic.

Liberation

We want to support the demand for justice by spotlighting the personal stories of people who seek liberation in all its different forms. Our correspondents share their individual experiences in creating equality. We hope that for some this will be an encouragement to continue their own struggle against inequality and oppression - and for some an encouragement to get involved.

Education

Education is the newest addition to our themes. We believe that education, not only formal but also informal, is one of the core aspects of just and equal society as well as social change. Our correspondents share their experiences and confrontations about educational inequalities, accessibility issues and influence of societal norms and structures. 

Corona Virus

2020 is a year different from others before - not least because of the Corona pandemic. The worldwide spread of a highly contagious virus is something that affects all of us in very different ways. To get a better picture of how the pandemic's plethora of explicit and implicit consequences influences our everyday life, we share lockdown stories from correspondents all over the world.

Growing Fast

Although we started just over a year ago, Correspondents of the World has a quickly growing community of correspondents - and a dedicated team of editors, translators and country managers.

94

Correspondents

113

Stories

57

Countries

433

Translations

Contact

Correspondents of the World is as much a community as an online platform. Please feel free to contact us for whatever reason!

Message Us

Message on WhatsApp

Call Us

Joost: +31 6 30273938