Kalki Koechlin: Bollywood and beauty standards

What should you do when your daughter tells you she doesn’t feel pretty?

Kalki Koechlin has acted in blockbuster Bollywood films, written and produced for stage, and penned a book about pregnancy and motherhood called The Elephant In The Womb. She is also the host of the BBC World Service podcast My Indian Life.

Kalki joins Namulanta to share the letter she wrote for her young daughter after she admitted that she didn’t feel pretty. She discusses the expectations on women to conform to a certain beauty standard, particularly as they age, and the pressures she has faced in her acting career to appear youthful. What advice can she give her daughter for navigating a world obsessed with appearance?

Kalki also shares her fears for the impact of social media on body image. How can parents teach their children that not all of what they see online is real?

Dear Daughter is an award-winning podcast from the BBC World Service about love, life, family, and raising children. It is the brainchild of Namulanta Kombo, a mother on a quest to create a ‘handbook to life’ for her daughter, through the advice of parents from all over the world.

Each episode, a guest reads a letter they’ve written to their children (or their future children, or the children they never had) with the advice, life lessons, and personal stories they’d like to pass on.

Expect extraordinary true stories, inspirational advice for parents, and moving accounts of families, relationships and raising daughters.

Share your letter! What do you want to say to your kids? Or the next generation? Do you have thoughts on motherhood, fatherhood, or parenthood to share? Whether you are a mum or mom, dad or papa, grandparent, uncle, aunt, daughter, son or just want to write a letter, send us a Whatsapp message on [phone] or visit bbcworldservice.com/deardaughter.

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