6yo little girl with a unibrow-being teased

[Anonymous]

My niece has a unibrow, there is no other way to say it. Black hair, pale skin. She is absolutely wonderful and beautiful, but she is getting teased, which is shocking that the teasing is starting so young but that is a different thread. My niece was trying to cut it with her little safety scissors and my SIL vented to me that it was probably her teachers fault. She said that her teacher (from what I gathered, very delicately) broached the subject about the teasing.

SIL refuses to do anything about it. I made the mistake of saying, "You could try those little eyebrow razors, there would be no pain." In response to her saying, "What am I supposed to do take her to a spa and have them rip it out?" She got really pissed at me and that wasn't my intention at all. I feel bad for my niece, she goes to a small private school and something like this can stick with a child. I brought it up to my brother and he said "I know but *shrug* DW doesn't think its a problem." I called him chickensh*t.

Is there any way I can bring this up again with SIL in a way that won't cause WWIII? My gut wants to just do it myself but of course I won't.

I meant these things btw:

[Anonymous]

don't shave it - they you will have stubble, which is worse.

yes, you'll have to wax or thread it. shaving it will just look worse. Really, it's no worse than a band aid rip (we aren't talking Brazilian here).
Go to a good salon.

[Anonymous]

Threading is the way to go BUT - her mom isn't open to it. Her dad isn't willing to stand up to mom. You need to butt out. It sucks but it isn't your place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:don't shave it - they you will have stubble, which is worse.

yes, you'll have to wax or thread it. shaving it will just look worse. Really, it's no worse than a band aid rip (we aren't talking Brazilian here).
Go to a good salon.

It's not her kid. Learn to read.

OP, you probably can't bring it up again but it sucks that your SIL is so insensitive to her daughter.

[Anonymous]

Could she bleach it?

But no, I don't think you can say anything at the moment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Threading is the way to go BUT - her mom isn't open to it. Her dad isn't willing to stand up to mom. You need to butt out. It sucks but it isn't your place.

Yes, of course you are right and I do know that deep down. This is my niece though and I hurt that she is hurting so I was hoping to just bring it up gently one more time - or I would feel guilty I didn't try to help her.

[Anonymous]

You could maybe say, "I've heard other young girls address this issues with (threading, bleaching etc) in case Larla really pushes this issue."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Threading is the way to go BUT - her mom isn't open to it. Her dad isn't willing to stand up to mom. You need to butt out. It sucks but it isn't your place.

Yes, of course you are right and I do know that deep down. This is my niece though and I hurt that she is hurting so I was hoping to just bring it up gently one more time - or I would feel guilty I didn't try to help her.

I'd stay on your brother about it, if anything. He seems to have the door opened a crack, and he is the one that can take it up with his wife.

[Anonymous]

Agree that you most likely need to stay out of it. You can bring it up with your brother, but I really don't think you can bring it up with your SIL again and again.

As a pale-skinned person with dark hair, I will reiterate that you do NOT want her to shave it. Get it threaded. Best way to go.

[Anonymous]

Stay on your brother about it. I was also pale with dark hair growing up and I got waxed. Now that threading is so accessible here, I'd do it in a heartbeat for my DD.

[Anonymous]

Yikes. I had this same concern about a niece (not blood related) so I would never even bring this up, but I do worry about her!!! She will be starting school/6 next year.

[Anonymous]

Thank you everyone for your advice. I didn't know about the shaving thing, I just thought of it because I thought SILs concern was the pain.

I would not even give this a second thought if she wasn't being teased/was stressed out about this. SIL has the same thick dark hair, so I think maybe she grew up with it and it wasn't a big deal so she thinks this isn't. I don't know. I'll talk to my brother again and then leave it alone.

[Anonymous]

Let her know that there is NOTHING wrong with her or her unibrow.
Empower her to love it and dismiss teasing. If she can explain why it is special and beautiful, it will diminish power of insults. The kids will think it's cool - ala Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.
Show her pictures of girls and women with unique features. Frida Kahlo, Lauren Hutton, Cara Delvigne - beautiful women. My niece has a giant gap tooth and I am so hoping she chooses to keep it.

https://darcyarts.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/kahlo.jpg

[Anonymous]

OMG, shes 6!!! Perhaps we could do a better job of teaching our 6 year olds not to tease, rather than insisting this child start modifying herself to fit beauty standards before even hitting puberty.

[Anonymous]

I had a neighbor with a daughter about 11 years old -- she was just lovely, but definitely had an unruly unibrow. They waited to address it because they wanted her to learn to manage comments from her peers rather than simply "fixing" the problem. Obviously she could then be teased about something else.

They talked about it openly, though, and told her that she could get it fixed before she started middle school. After that, it would be her responsibility/choice to maintain it.

They did take her in for threading or something and WOW -- she was transformed. But I think she appreciated learning how to live with imperfection. We all have something. She's a very level-headed, confident young woman now. And a very nice one -- I can promise she would never tease another person about their appearance.