Model Sophia Hadjipanteli Embraces Her Unibrow on Instagram Despite the Haters
Brow on fleek! Sophia Hadjipanteli is making a name for herself in the modeling world thanks to her signature unibrow, but the Mediterranean beauty recently revealed her journey has not been easy. In an emotional Instagram post, Sophia opened up about the bullying she experienced as a young girl.
"As someone that was bullied for either being too short, too chubby, too annoying, or too 'weird' in the way I dressed — I dealt with a lot. I still deal with a lot, and I’m so f–king tired of it," she wrote alongside a stunning selfie. "Even though I am not bullied by those specific losers anymore, I have definitely developed severe social anxiety as a result of it." Sophia admitted to avoiding crowded areas in her town to avoid "those people" and missing homecoming and football games growing up because of the bullying. However, she did give her followers some solid advice.
"Find the people that protect you, hold them close. You will definitely learn how to deal with your past," she added. "I am still learning. Just wanted to share that we all go through different battles, and whatever yours is — you have got this." We couldn't agree more!
Today, Sophia has over 170,000 followers on the social media platform and her career is taking off, having been featured by Vogue Italia and LOVE magazine — without conforming to beauty standards. Aka the unibrow is here to stay. "I am not really doing this to show people that they have to like [my unibrow], I am more so doing it to show people that they can get on with their lives by having a preference. I personally think my face looks better this way," she explained to Harper's Bazaar. "Others disagree, and that’s totally cool. I am not trying to get anyone on the unibrow bandwagon. If I like this, just let me like this."
A natural blonde, the 21-year-old has stopped tweezing her eyebrows and actually tints them darker to accentuate her now signature feature. Initially, an act of rebellion, today her unibrow has morphed into a full-grown (no pun intended) movement we can all get behind. "I was controlling the type of attention I was getting, and I still am, which feels really good. With everything you do, having a sense of control is crucial," she wrote in i-D. "The #unibrowmovement is a movement for this very reason, it’s always evolving. And it’s a hashtag because I think a lot of people hide things online, and I want the movement to inspire people to want to showcase things they may otherwise hide, both on and offline. I want everyone in this community to support each other through the hashtag."
She continued, "I’m literally just here to be myself, and if that helps other people, then that’s awesome."