Ever since my sister came home crying about how she was mocked by her friends for having no eyebrows in second grade, my mom was determined to make a change.
And the next day, she brought home three large bottles of Rogaine. Every night, my sister and I would diligently apply the hair follicle stimulating solution to our eyebrows, and the first thing we do in the morning was to examine carefully if our eyebrows become bushier. And it did. I remembered the day when I woke my mom up and said: “Look, my eyebrows! They got longer. See? A bit here at the tips.” But the miracle only happened once. As for my sister, sadly, it never did.
This wasn’t the only time I was reminded of the vital importance of having good-looking eyebrows.
Last year, when our flight to Taiwan was cancelled and we were forced to stay for another night without our luggage, Juliana C. (12) was freaking out because she didn’t have her eyebrow pencil with her. The next day, she came knocking at my hotel door at 6AM, asking if she could borrow mine. “Eyebrows can make or break your face,” she said.
Indeed, eyebrows are precious, and there is just something about eyebrows that inspire absolute confidence.
“[Having nice eyebrows] makes you feel happier and more complete as an individual. In a way, you [also] look more spirited,” said Birthe C. (12) when asked why so many girls spend a lot of time perfecting their eyebrows. “Whenever I did my eyebrows, I [was able to] walk out feeling nice and confident,” she added.
Gracie S. (12), who threads [her eyebrows] about once every two months said, “I think a lot of girls spend time making sure their eyebrows look nice because that is one of the first things people notice these days.”
As for Ashley Y. (11), she values her eyebrows so much that she’d rather have someone shave all her hair off her head than have someone touching her naturally thick eyebrows or as she described, her “majestic jungle.” “I never really noticed [my eyebrows] until last year when there’s the whole eyebrows on fleek trend,” she said. “[Ever since] I realized the fortune of my eyebrows, I just kind of played with them and showed them some love. Gotta groom the forest every now and then. Gotta trim the trees.”
To people like Ashley and Gracie who are gifted with lush eyebrows, eyebrows are merely a physical feature that have no correlation with what kind of person you are. But no way does this make eyebrows less important.
And so the obsession continues. We pluck them, wax them, draw them, or fill them in to make them look the way we wanted.
“Brows and butt. They’re the only things you need to go far in life,” said Ashley. Fleek! But I’d prefer to add another word. Books. Brows and butt and books. Don’t ever forget that. They’re the only  reason you’re here.