I always wanted to look like Cinderella as a child. To resemble her beauty as much as my friends did. As a teenager I wanted to look like Kylie Jenner, cliché I know but very on-trend for the time. Where I am today, I want to know why I always wished to resemble a white woman growing up. My upbringing was one that was nomadic making me a third culture kid separated from home and my roots. Making me a part of the Diaspora. There was a point in my life where racial discrimination was a daily occurrence that had me feel the need to hide my South Asian roots and deny my identity to save myself from the bullying and harassment. I noticed as well that I was more often than not the only person of colour in the room and it took years for me to feel comfortable in my skin and proud of my ancestry but still to this day I cannot face those who made me endure that struggle. It was especially hard to be proud of my South Asian identity in countries abroad when everything everyone knew of South Asians were racial stereotypes they had picked up from the media’s portrayal of us. Those stereotypes being, ‘Stinking like Curry’, ‘Oily and dirty’, ‘Unpopular’, ‘Living in the slums’ and the list goes on. During that time in my life, I was quite oblivious to the fact that those remarks made towards me were racist. It was only until I moved to India that I began to connect the dots and work towards embracing my culture and ancestry without feeling ashamed or scared to look and be a bit more Desi.