When I was 11, I faked a stomachache on a family trip just to stay in a college girl’s room and read her stack of fashion magazines. I was hooked—the gloss, the storytelling, the lipstick names. On the ride home, I begged my parents for subscriptions and shortly after, I started writing for the local paper.
But as a South Asian girl growing up on those glossy pages, I also remember trying to make myself look more like the people in them. I dyed my hair, straightened my curls, looked up how to contour my nose. I thought beauty meant becoming someone else.
Eventually, that changed. I realized I never wanted my little sister, my mom, or someday my future nieces and daughters to feel the way I did. And I realized I could help tell a different story.
So today, I’m thrilled to share that I’m officially overseeing beauty content at The New York Times (Wirecutter).
That still doesn’t feel real to type.
Beauty is personal. It’s cultural, emotional, daily, and deeply human. It lives in our top shelves, our glove compartments, our morning routines. And now I get to write about it—and help others feel seen in it—on the biggest stage of my career so far.
Here’s to the brown girls, the beauty nerds, and the stomachache fakers. We’re just getting started. 🤎
There is a specific kind of magic in walking into a store and seeing our culture reflected back at us on a shelf where we were once told it once didn’t belong. Seeing Indē Wild become the first Indian-homegrown brand at Sephora USA feels like a collective exhale. To those of us who never saw ourselves in the beauty aisle: we belong here. This isn’t just about hair (though I can’t stop sniffing mine since this oil entered my life). It’s about being seen with pride. Massive congratulations to @diipakhosla@indewild for breaking the ceiling. (Slides two and three are some outtakes of shooting this with @ruthiedarling in our office basement’s bathtub, but only those with my cell number are allowed to see my favorites. 😉)
Devoted to the Gray Lady, but making a little room on the vanity for a column at Vogue, where I get to wax poetic about my love for love ❤️ A special thank you to my panel of experts: @tinatharwani for the planning prowess, @konkanabakshi for her impeccable etiquette, and my brilliant friend @diva.dhawan for the stylistic eye.
Those of you who really know me will find it deeply unsurprising that I used my very first published article in The New York Times to brag about my sister (every artist needs a muse). And, yes, I also love the @tangleteezer brush very much.
A beauty editor’s Turks & Glowcos love story: came for the sun, stayed for sunrise yoga, left with a carry-on full of sheet masks. @wymaraturks@111skin
