“I was born and raised in Braila, Romania. It is a city in the South-East of Romania, which is a very traditional area. The church is still very powerful here, and it has a lot of influence on Romanians."
Rômulo Rosa (25) is a gender-fluid Brazilian from São Paulo. They share with us their journey.
Where I come from in Bulgaria, beauty standards are quite high across the board. I don’t feel like body positivity has reached Bulgaria at all. In Bulgaria, there’s pretty much just the view of skinniness as beauty.
“Modeling made me want to be perfect, but after having acne, my whole perspective on beauty changed. It made me realize that I can’t equate my looks to my value as a person. “
Have you ever gone completely went out of your way for someone? I mean - really went out of your way for someone. And, have you ever had someone take it completely for granted because they just expected this from you? They didn’t think twice, and they didn’t show thanks. What was your impression? To say the least, you probably felt devalued and as if you were in a toxic relationship.
How do we know when something is a community versus a clique? Within a clique, individuality is not rewarded, and it is sometimes even punished. Within a community or a group of friends, individuality is accepted as a part of a common thread. In a community or friendship, the idea of living authentically should not feel nerve wracking or impossible. Opposite of a clique, excluding others is not the foundation or even a defining feature.
Anonymous - I remember growing up in a predominantly white school, and when I looked around, I didn’t understand why my nostrils were bigger, why my lips were bigger, why my hair didn’t swing when it was put in a ponytail, or why I had to put chemicals on it for it to look “presentable.” Why did I have to walk away from the salon with chemical wounds on my scalp to be beautiful? This is what I internalized from society, and I dealt with a lot of comments about my ethnic appearance growing up.
Anonymous - I’m asexual, and that means I’m on a spectrum. For me personally, I experience aesthetic attraction and romantic attraction. A lot of people grow up understanding that you’re supposed to fall in love and get married. Typically, when someone finds attraction, most people think that you fall in love, you have sex, and you get married. People see those things as a package or as something that happens altogether, but I don’t. For me, a lot of those things are very different facets. That’s why on Valentine’s day I can’t identify the need to show more attraction or affection on one particular day. Anyways, it seems like it’s good to show that on every day of the year.