This Viral Hashtag Is Encouraging Women to Embrace Their Noses

We all have parts of our body we're self-conscious about. For Radhika Sanghani, it's her nose. The journalist has spent her whole life thinking of her nose as a "flaw"-so much so that she refused to be photographed from the side. But now, she's using her voice to spread an important message about self-acceptance with a new campaign: #sideprofileselfie. Sanghani is encouraging women who are self-conscious about their side profiles to use the hashtag to help break the stereotype surrounding big noses.

"I feel like the only taboo that hasn't been broken is the big nose, and it's not right," Sanghani wrote in "Reclaiming the Side Profile," an essay she recently wrote for Grazia. "We've seen the unfiltered spotty skin, the stretch marks, the cellulite, and the body hair all being reclaimed as our own and beautiful online," she explained. "But noses are still hidden in subtle head tilts and awkward poses. We need change. It's why I'm using this article to launch the #sideprofileselfie."

Sanghani's call to expand the body positive movement to also include noses of all shapes and sizes struck a chord with thousands of women on social media. Since Sanghani published her essay, #sideprofileselfie has gone viral. Women from all across the world are using the hashtag and sharing photos of their noses to call out society's unrealistic beauty standards that dictate women's noses should enhance their femininity.

"My nose chin combo means I always avoid a #sideprofileselfie this campaign is needed!" one woman shared on Twitter.

"I've never ever put a photo online of my side profile before because it's made me self-conscious every day for as long as I can remember," said another. "But you know what, BIG NOSES ARE OKAY although tweeting this is scary."

"I've always hated my large nose and its bump. After a fracture in my late teens the asymmetry of my nose only became worse," someone else tweeted. "This photo was one of many from my wedding day that I couldn't bear to look at. It's time to start loving our faces the way they are!"

Sanghani knows exactly how these commenters feel. "My theory is beauty standards have lauded small noses over big ones because they fit in with the idea of women being delicate, dainty, and not taking up space," she wrote in the essay. "But we're not. We're bold, strong, and we can take up as much space as we want, even with our bodies."