Ugly

We've all had those moments. The ones where you look in the mirror and nothing feels ok looking back at you. For Anita Bhagwandas, this started when she was a child growing up in South Wales, and it created an enduring internal torment about her looks.

We're all told that this sadness is just part of 'being a woman'. We're encouraged to obsess over it and go to any length to change it, but we're also ordered to 'just love ourselves' from every corner of the internet. But what if there was another way out of the beauty myth? In Ugly, Anita uncovers where these beauty standards started, unpicks why they've been perpetuated and unmasks how they're still being upheld.

It is time to finally break free from those limiting beauty standards, because feeling ugly has nothing to do with us.

Anita Bhagwandas is an award-winning freelance journalist, beauty editor and broadcaster based in London. She's spent the last 15 years climbing the ranks of some of the UK's biggest fashion and lifestyle titles, promoting inclusivity and change wherever she's worked. Anita writes regularly for Conde Nast Traveller, Guardian as well as Stylist, The Telegraph, Marie Claire, Allure, i-D, NME and more. She has appeared on Channel 4, ITV and BBC as a beauty and inclusivity expert.