AN ARTIST is embracing her chest hair and challenging beauty ideals by creating a self-liberating photography project about body hair and femininity. Esther Calixte-Bea - also known on social media as 'Queen Esie' - from Montreal, Canada, said she inherited the hairiness from her father's family who is part of the Wè tribe in Ivory Coast, Africa. Esther spent her teenage years hating and obsessively shaving the hair on her chest and legs, to the point that it left her severely depressed. Tired of hiding her chest hair like 'a heavy burden' for years, she began questioning the cultural norms and ideals around female body hair. Esther said: "I'm tired of feeling like I have to look a certain way to be beautiful. That's when I decided to fully embrace my chest hair." At the age of 22, Esther finally ditched the razor and let her body hair grow out - and she never looked back. She has also launched a photographic series, 'Lavender', to proudly display her chest hair and embrace her natural beauty in self-portraits. With her artwork and photos, Esther hopes she could inspire and encourage other women to accept and love themselves. She said: "I want women to be able to be like 'Hey, if I don't feel like shaving, I'm not gonna shave. If I feel like embracing my body hair, I will'."
https://www.instagram.com/queen_esie/
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