A Lot Of South Indians Are Tweeting Pictures Of Themselves With The Hashtag #SouthIndianAndProud

"South Indians should be proud no matter what shape, size, skin tone or state."

Last week, 19-year-old Singapore-based student Tricia Ferdinandt wrote this long thread about being South Indian.

Twitter: @K0HIN00R

Ferdinandt says, "Well, personally I feel that anything desi is North Indian and Pakistani (light-skin oriented). In the South Asian beauty accounts I always see, the ones with fair skin and eurocentric features are being featured and I was tired of that. I wanted it to be a hashtag where people can feel proud to be South Indians no matter what shape, size, skin tone, state etc."

As a reaction to the hashtag #brownszn (Brown Season) which she believed focused mostly on North Indian beauty, she started this one.

Twitter: @K0HIN00R

"I then realised how I have never actually seen a hashtag or space that celebrated the diversity and beauty of South Indian people so I wanted to pioneer in that," she told BuzzFeed.

The result has been South Indians from around the world tweeting pictures of themselves to showcase their pride.

Twitter: @NathiyaFaith

Twitter: @sobannna

Even men didn't shy away from using the hashtag.

Twitter: @harranz_

Twitter: @raphaelraj777

Twitter: @Shreedzter

Ferdinandt, who is Malayalee on her dad's side and Gujarati-Tamil on her mom's side, said, "I hate that when someone thinks of India or Indian movies, they think of actors with light skin and actresses with eurocentric features. We all have such diverse and unique features."

Twitter: @deepikasbae

"It chokes me up because they tell me how the hashtag means so much to them and how it has made them appreciate their culture," she added.

Twitter: @notagnesbae