Boy, 9, was bullied for wearing lipstick. This is what his cousins did to show support

A nine-year-old boy, bullied for wearing lipstick, has found support in his cousins, whose bold move has made him feel “accepted”.

Diksha Bijlani’s tweet about how her “Little Cuz” was bullied at home and how she and other cousins supported him has become viral on the internet.

Bijlani said in the past too, the cousin had been the target of jokes because of his “effeminate” nature.

“(He) loves to paint nails, wear lip colour, learn home science!” she wrote in the tweet.

My cousin, 9, is the most "effeminate" in the house. Let’s call him Little Cuz. Loves to paint nails, wear lipcolour, learn home science! But in this stereotypical alpha male-centric household he’s often the pivot of jokes. Today he applied lipcolour & got called a "chakka" (1/n) pic.twitter.com/mZ2FplPNyP

— Diksha Bijlani (@BijlaniDiksha) June 18, 2018

After he was teased for putting makeup, he hid behind the curtain “shielding his lip-coloured face from the camera and his mom”.

So he hid behind the curtain & under the bed, shielding his lipcoloured face from the camera & from his mom. Somehow it is always the moms that feel most "embarassed" with their masculine, hardy sons trying makeup. Or anything feminine. (2/n)

— Diksha Bijlani (@BijlaniDiksha) June 18, 2018

So, his elder cousins came up with a brilliant idea to make him feel “comfortable and accepted”. They all wore the same lip colour and posted the pictures on Twitter in support of him.

In such a house it takes constant work as elder cousins to undo the conditioned gender binary,normalise gender neutral acts which are deemed feminine. So we all wore lip color to make him comfortable & accepted. He felt a specially empowered when he saw my brother wearing it(3/n) pic.twitter.com/aixXrfMpbw

— Diksha Bijlani (@BijlaniDiksha) June 18, 2018

My brother gave up any toxic masculinity & complied to influence Little Cuz. Little Cuz came out & smiled comfortable in his skin.
So important to realise that we owe the responsibility of giving every younger kid a safe space to embrace his place within the gender spectrum(4/n) pic.twitter.com/d9ffsJbsTa

— Diksha Bijlani (@BijlaniDiksha) June 18, 2018

And, guess what, this encouraged “Little Cuz” to finally come out and smile at the camera.

So important to tell little kids gender is a spectrum, a repertoire of places they can visit w/o losing their identity. I hope all of us tell kids we know that they are valid, they are accepted, & they are beautiful today. I hope we don’t become the bullies we warn them of. (5/5)

— Diksha Bijlani (@BijlaniDiksha) June 18, 2018

“So important to tell little kids gender is a spectrum... I hope all of us tell kids we know that they are valid, they are accepted, & they are beautiful today. I hope we don’t become the bullies we warn them of,” she wrote in her last tweet.

So important to tell little kids gender is a spectrum, a repertoire of places they can visit w/o losing their identity. I hope all of us tell kids we know that they are valid, they are accepted, & they are beautiful today. I hope we don’t become the bullies we warn them of. (5/5)

— Diksha Bijlani (@BijlaniDiksha) June 18, 2018

Seems like their sweet gesture succeeded in making him feel empowered. “UPDATE: Gender is not real. Yesterday me and my brother both wore red lipstick along with didi,” she told an elder of the household the next day, after he was reprimanded for riding a pink-coloured bicycle.

Update: Today, Little Cuz picked up his sister’s pink bicycle. Uncle ridiculed him for riding on a pink bicycle like a girl (bec that’s how petty my fam is). He retorts & says "Gender real nai hota. Kal mene aur bhaiya dono ne red lipstick lagaya tha didi ke saath. Aap puchlo" 😊

— Diksha Bijlani (@BijlaniDiksha) June 19, 2018

Many on social media were touched with the story and voiced their support.

Here's a little something in his support. pic.twitter.com/YHGh6ceTEX

— वरुण (@varungrover) June 19, 2018

Hug him and tell him it's going to be better

— Aparna Ramachandra (@msaparna) June 18, 2018

Sending lots of love to this cute little fellow 😊💜 pic.twitter.com/1ykGV1b61l

— OriJINal Aditi (@royal_kpoper) June 20, 2018