An old school feminist may have just saved my life.

Throwaway account as I'm about to get a little personal. <br><br>I've just graduated med school and got into psychiatry. I've been shadowing a senior doctor and learning from them, running group therapy sessions etc. It's been about these months now. <br><br>Things have been great. She teaches me incredibly well and lets me take a front seat in educating patients and interacting with them. I genuinely want to emulate her in my career. <br><br>But - I've always been really insecure about my appearance. I cry at night thinking about how ugly I am. I'm South Asian and doing my training in London. Generally I get positive comments from people here but once my senior doctor asked about my eye shape. I told her about my heritage and if she knew about the racial differentiation of eye shapes in my culture. She looked confused and said that she thought 'all Asian eyes looked like that.' I smiled and laughed it off but deep down I felt a slight pang of sadness. <br><br>The next day she approached me and apologised profusely for what she said the day before. She said that her daughter was reading this book on intersectional feminism and how women of colour are consistently left out of conversations about racism as well as sexism. She said that she hopes she didn't hurt me and that I am one of the most deserving students she has ever had under her wing. I looked at her and realised that this was the first time a woman had ever made me feel like a person. <br><br>I've been holding back tears ever since. I feel like it's okay to be myself and that I still have people who care for me even if I don't fit their paradigm of beauty. <br><br>I just want to thank her from the bottom of my heart.