Celebrating Everyday Women - Qiao Qing

"Strength is beautiful, women can be powerful."

As the Chief Warrior, and founder of Little Warriors, Qiao Qing is seasoned in the struggles of sensitive skin. Her small frame belies the formidable spirit that has been forged through years of battling eczema with her two daughters. 

Before becoming a stay-at-home mother, Qiao Qing had a successful career as a manager, but she gave up when she found herself overwhelmed by the demands of tending to the bloody wounds and angry rashes of her young daughter. "The turning point was when I realised I was telling her to hurry up more than I love her," she confides. That was when she resolved to do all she could to ease the discomfort of her children, cutting out possible allergens from her diet, and sewing mittens onto baby clothes so that her daughters would stop scratching their delicate skin. This set her on a path to setting up Little Warriors when she found solidarity with other families facing similar challenges.

With visible rashes on their skins, her daughters were often exposed to the scrutiny of others. Qiao Qing found herself questioning the standards of beauty that were being imposed, and how she should discuss beauty with her daughters: "Do we tell them that it's okay - you have eczema and you are beautiful. Or do we tell them that you have eczema, and Mama is going to do everything in my power to heal your skin so that you become beautiful?" All Qiao Qing knows is that she loves them, and the skin condition is part of who they are. "I hope that the world can be more inclusive in terms of perceiving beauty. I hope that the world can see that children can be beautiful even without perfect skin, even if they look different from us."

Perhaps one day, we would embrace these battle scars as a kind of beauty.