body hair — zine

Women living within patriarchal societies are often made to feel ashamed of simply existing, and body hair has long been treated as something women must hide or remove. Growing up, I carried deep insecurities about my own body hair, only to later discover that many of my friends from different cultures experienced the same shame. Despite coming from different backgrounds and countries, the expectations imposed on women remained strikingly similar.

Through this work, a Filipina, a Brazilian, and a Colombian woman reclaim ownership of their bodies by rejecting the shame attached to natural body hair. I photographed my Brazilian and Colombian friends for this project, incorporating scanned images of real female body hair to confront societal standards of femininity, beauty, and acceptance.