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Vineeta Singh, who became a household name after appearing a ‘shark’ on the first season of the reality show Shark Tank India, spoke about the trolling she faces online. She said in a chat with writer Chetan Bhagat that she never thought she could ignore criticism, but she’s proud of herself for being able to block out negativity.
She said that she applies a ‘post-and-run’ approach to social media these days, which means that she doesn’t stick around to read comments after sharing pictures on Instagram. But, she said, even though she is an accomplished businessperson, most of the comments under her posts are about her looks.
She said, “Unfortunately, this is a thing. Your appearance, as a woman, is given so much importance. Even on Instagram, I’ve achieved so much in life, but when I post something, 95% of the comments are about the way you look. It’s one of those things. It’s a by-product of being a girl.” Vineeta continued, “Now that I’m the CEO of a company, I feel that even now, people are only commenting things like, ‘You don’t look good enough’, or ‘You started a makeup company because you look so bad’.”
Whatever you do, people willl find a way to bring you down. I’ve worked really hard to get to where I am, I’ve struggled, I’ve suffered, and irrespective of what industry it is, it’s something that is well-deserved. But now also, the way you look is very important, especially for a woman. Men can get away with thoda sa…”
Vineeta said that she is often called a ‘hypocrite’ for having started a makeup company, while at the same time talking about self-love. She said that she has had conversations about this with her friends, and was happy to answer Chetan Bhagat’s question about how she reconciles the dissonance between endorsing self-love and selling makeup products. She said that at the end of the day, women use makeup not to please others, but themselves. And if it makes them happy, then it shouldn’t be a problem for anybody else.
Circling back to the attacks she faces on the internet, she added, “Nobody said Steve Jobs same T-shirt kyu pehenta hai, and they never questioned that, right? It was fine for Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs to wear the same T-shirt… It was cool, actually. But in India, people give too much importance to this.”
Vineeta is the founder-CEO of Sugar Cosmetics. She was seen alongside other entrepreneurs such as Peyush Bansal, Ghazal Alagh, Anupam Mittal, Aman Gupta, Ashneer Grover and Namita Thapar on Shark Tank India. A second season is in the works.
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