A couple of weeks ago I came across something on Instagram that caught my attention. As I was scrolling through, I saw a young 12-year-old girl named Lhma who dedicated her time to posting makeup tutorials. While this girl was very skilled at applying makeup, when she did so, this girl went from looking like an innocent 12-year-old to a seductive 20-year-old.
This young cancer survivor has been through a lot in life, and that is why her mom runs her Instagram. After speaking to the young girl and her mother, her mother allows her to pursue her passion in makeup because she feels guilty saying no to her own daughter. In an effort to keep her daughter happy, she allows her daughter to upload these tutorials.
In doing this, Lhma is exposed to internet trolls who do nothing but leave nasty comments on her tutorials. We all may say that words don’t hurt us, but there comes a time where we all break, no matter how strong we think we are. She is able to read the comments left on her video and has often picked fights with people on Instagram who do not support her makeup tutorials.
I took the time to discuss this situation with a few women and found two different perspectives. It came down to two choices, do you let this young 12-year-old continue her hobby in makeup knowing it could potentially ruin her skin and allow her to be exposed to haters on the internet, or do you cut back on her makeup privileges in an effort to protect her self esteem from those out to hurt her?
From the women I talked with, I found that those that were in their 20s and didn’t have children believed the girl should be allowed to continue her tutorials. Middle-aged women with kids of their own already believed that the girl should not have been exposed to makeup at a young age and rather protect their child from getting her feelings hurt by people on the internet.
Those who supported the girl claimed that if makeup is her passion, then it is wrong for her mom to take that from her. When it comes to internet trolls, they believed that the girl is always going to have someone in her life who is trying to bring her down. However. it is the mom’s job to teach her how to handle the bullying in an effective and healthy manner.
On the other hand, those who believed the girl should put an end to her tutorials thought that her health is more important than makeup. A cancer patient explained to me that when you go through chemotherapy and even after the treatment is over, the medication takes a permanent toll on you. The medication lowers your self-esteem and continues to do so after the treatment is over. By adding hate comments to an already low self-esteemed young girl, she could take the comments to heart and begin to believe what the internet trolls are saying about her.
The one thing that makes this girl happy can actually be the same reason why she becomes emotionally hurt. They say that a girl’s mother knows what is best for her, therefore I trust that the mom knows how to teach her daughter how to handle bullying. Lhma is currently continuing her makeup tutorials and has stopped arguing with people who put her down on social media. She is learning to ignore those who post hurtful comments, but has also not posted makeup tutorials as often as she used to do.