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Although tall and beautiful, success hasn\u2019t come easily for Mariette, as her dusky complexion has created several hurdles. She shares with NT Kuriocity her struggles and success.<\/p>\n
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Maria Fernandes | NT Kuriocity<\/p>\n
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Actor, model, singer and activist, Mariette Valsan manages all her roles with ease. With six years of modelling experience under her belt, she has endorsed some well-known brands and has appeared in iconic advertisements like Born Glamorous for The Bombay Times besides others. Making her acting debut alongside a stellar ensemble cast in \u2018Hotel Mumbai\u2019, she has led several short films which were awarded at various international film festivals. She is also in the primary cast of Pawan and Pooja, a web series on Mx player.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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As a child of a naval officer, Mariette\u2019s childhood was spent all over the country. Blessed with an extremely fertile imagination, she wanted to pursue different types of careers as a child. \u201cGrowing up in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi and watching my mother and other wonderful female role models (my friends\u2019 parents) some of whom were in the education sector, or IPS and IFS officers, made me believe that I could be anything I wanted to be, and gender would never be an issue,\u201d she recalls. However, she soon learned that gender bias is very much present as the same \u2018aunties\u2019 whose sons she used to play with as a child, would turn around and complain about her to her mother. \u201cI was a tomboy and always loved sports and the outdoors. Cooking and dolls were really not my cup of tea. So when I became a teenager, these women would complain that I was gallivanting with boys! I then became aware of the double standards that society held for young women in this country.\u201d Luckily for her, she says, her parents were her saving grace. \u201cEspecially my mother who was least bothered about what society thought of her daughter. She led by example, and watching her and her friends, I learned that what I do, how I treat others and who I choose to become is more important than what I looked like, or what people thought of me.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Mariette\u2019s career as a model began a few years ago; \u2018by fluke\u2019 as she says. \u201cI met the designer, James Fereira while on a small assignment and he signed me up to walk for his show and from there my career took off,\u201d she shares. From being the kid who was too dark skinned, not pretty enough, nor ever noticed by boys, to a model and actor, she has come a long way. However, it hasn\u2019t always been smooth sailing as the prejudice against dark skin, she realised, is universal. \u201cVery early on in my career, I was sent for an audition for a hair brand, and as I walked in, the casting director stopped me and told me that I did not fit the look. I was told that they were looking only for light skinned girls, and obviously, I didn\u2019t fit the brief,\u201d she recounts. Well, she did not get the contract but the very next year was hired by Garnier India to be the face of their hair colour brand for that year! \u201cThis would soon be one of many turndowns, where I have been called to an audition because they saw my photographs, read my name, assumed I am not Indian, and when I landed up \u2013 been asked to leave as there was a \u2018misunderstanding\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
When she\u2019s not in front of the camera, Mariette uses her English literature degree and communications PG to actively campaign for children\u2019s rights and speaks up against colourism in the entertainment industry. She believes in using her education and privilege to support those who don\u2019t have access to speak up for themselves.\u00a0\u201cColourism is deeply ingrained in our nation\u2019s psyche because of our collective historical experience, both with caste and colonialism \u2013 which constantly reinforced that fair is not only beautiful, but also associated with power. Colourism has a profound negative effect on the self-esteem and moral of so many young men and women, to the point where they consider themselves unworthy because of the colour of their skin. I want to reinforce the idea that beauty standards are made up, and that to adhere to them is damaging to the self in myriad ways,\u201d she says. She believes that the biggest form of protest, and to take back ownership of one\u2019s sense of self is to live one\u2019s life cultivating a deep love for oneself.<\/p>\n
Mariette has proved that no matter what the colour of your skin, staying true to yourself, working hard and not bowing down in the face of discrimination or pressure is what it takes to move ahead.<\/p>\n
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[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.8″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.8″] Although tall and beautiful, success hasn\u2019t come easily for Mariette, as her dusky complexion has created several hurdles. She shares with NT Kuriocity her struggles and success. Maria Fernandes | NT Kuriocity Actor, model, singer and activist, Mariette Valsan manages all her roles with ease. With six […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aspire-inspire","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navhindtimes.in\/kuriocity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navhindtimes.in\/kuriocity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navhindtimes.in\/kuriocity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navhindtimes.in\/kuriocity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navhindtimes.in\/kuriocity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1903"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.navhindtimes.in\/kuriocity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1905,"href":"https:\/\/www.navhindtimes.in\/kuriocity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1903\/revisions\/1905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navhindtimes.in\/kuriocity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navhindtimes.in\/kuriocity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navhindtimes.in\/kuriocity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navhindtimes.in\/kuriocity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}