A woman has received backlash after she posted a video of her waxing her daughter's eyebrows - claiming she's doing it to prevent her daughter from being bullied when she's older. Leah Garcia, 31, from Texas, has hit back at critics, arguing that she's not a bad mum for giving her daughter, Bliss, the eyebrow treatment.
Leah, who is of Hispanic heritage, suffered ridicule throughout her childhood for having thick and dark hair, as well as a prominent monobrow, and noticed her two daughters were similar to her - so she wanted to prevent them from suffering the same cruel jibes as she received. As a result, this means she waxes the eyebrows of both her daughters, Behautti, 11, and Bliss, three.
But despite her good intentions, she's received backlash from people saying she could be making her daughter insecure about something she should be unaware of.
Leah said: "Bliss was just over two when I started waxing her. Bliss and her sister Behautti have eight years between them, and Bliss would always see me wax her older sister's eyebrows so asked me if she could have it done too.
"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.
"People say she has no idea she even has a unibrow at the moment, but I wanted to wax it because the sooner you start with waxing, the less it grows back.
"With Behautti - who's 11 - she hardly has a unibrow now because we've been waxing it for so long. I don't mess with any other part of their eyebrows.
"It doesn't hurt Bliss any more than pulling off a plaster, it's just basic grooming. Unless you've struggled with it yourself you don't know."
Leah explained that she has the best of intentions when she's asking her daughters do they want to be waxed - she was incessantly bullied at school for the way she looked and doesn't want her children to experience the same.
She said: "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.
"In school. kids pointed it out, and boys even asked me why my eyebrows looked so big, and that was the first time anyone apart from my siblings made fun of me.
"No matter what, my parents wouldn't let me wax, so I shaved them and of course it didn't look great, so I got made fun of even more.
"When people say I'm making her insecure, I laugh and think there is nothing in the world that can make her insecure. She has so much confidence."
Many other parents accused her of projecting her own insecurities on her daughter, but she said that being bullied bothers people - and she doesn't want her daughter to have to go through what she did.
She also likened brow waxing to getting a hair cut, saying: "My daughter is beautiful. I don't care if people have a problem with me doing some basic grooming, just like taking her to get her hair cut.
"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.
"It is a hard thing to come back from and I'm just preventing that trauma, like any parent would want to do.
"I'm not training her to be insecure, I just want my daughter to feel good. I've never met anyone whose unibrow gives them confidence. Sometimes she will want it done and sometimes she won't, I will never force her."
Leah said that she wants other mums to know that they should do whatever they feel is best for their child, as mums know what will protect them the most.
She continued: "I teach my girls to be unapologetically themselves and I know them better than anyone else in this world.
"I got so many comments from other mums thanking me and saying they have wanted to do this as well but were worried what others would think.
"Others say they do this but have done it in secret as they were worried about what people would say.
"The video has done what I wanted it to, and I knew there would be backlash, but I'm open to hearing people's opinions, but no-one is entitled to hate so I've just been blocking the hateful comments.
"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, and people who aren't just don't understand."
Would you wax a three-year-old's eyebrows to prevent them from being bullied? Let us know in the comments.
