On February 20, 2019, ETA Anisha Tyagi held a female empowerment seminar at her school SMKN 6 Semarang. The culmination of months of discussions with Indonesian college students and neighboring ETAs Sarah Wozniak and Sabrina Verleysen, this discussion’s main idea was that women are worth more than their beauty.

Inundated with concepts of beauty that have been taken from the West, Indonesian women may feel the need to whiten their skin or feel insecure about their flat noses. While beautiful in Indonesia should change so it reflects how the average Indonesian woman looks, flat nose and all, a beauty standard is still a beauty standard. No matter how unrelatable, it will still need to be met and still make women feel inadequate.

College students, Citta Raissa Andini, Hani Nurlina, and Salsabila Hawa, along with ETAs, convinced girls in attendance that true beauty is our unique characteristics and the value we provide in the world.

It was the seminar’s first iteration and felt like a first draft at times, but it made everyone in attendance feel like they were valuable. To Anisha, that’s a success.

Anisha Tyagi is currently teaching at SMKN 6 Semarang, Central Java