It is easy to look at a blindingly beautiful star such as Priyanka Chopra Jonas and think, “When has someone like that ever struggled to be accepted?” But it turns out the Bollywood-Hollywood double threat has quietly amassed her share of battle scars in the fight for greater inclusivity and diversity—the topic du jour in fashion and entertainment these days.
Even so, with her career in ascendance and as one half of Tinseltown’s newest power couple since marrying singer Nick Jonas, she still encounters bias in her professional and personal life, the 37‑year‑old reveals. “It’s a factor every day,” she says.
Asked if the much-touted moves towards greater diversity and inclusion in the media are more than just a trend, she is impressively pragmatic. “Look,” she says. “Buzzy is good. It’s great that people are talking about inclusivity because there’s an accountability. When someone doesn’t do it, you can say, ‘Why aren’t you doing it?’ So if it is a trend, let’s use it in a way where it actually becomes a reality. Because only when the noise is loud enough is there change.”
The same goes for acceptance of different body shapes and sizes. “I would like to see the most amazing fashion labels catering to women of all sizes,” she says. “There’s this thing called ‘sample size’—and I don’t know who that size is for. A woman’s body changes, especially because of having kids, or just from being in your 30s, and then your 40s and 50s.”
But, she continues, “we as a society still have a very specific idea of what beauty should look like and how it should sustain over the years. And how someone who’s 50 should look like a 25-year-old. Those skewed ideologies still exist, and I wish the fashion and beauty industries would really be aware of it.”
The Quantico (2015 to 2018) and Baywatch (2017) actress is doing her bit to nudge industry norms in the right direction. In 2019, she launched the “Skinclusion” campaign with skincare brand Obagi to celebrate different skin tones.
“When I grew up,” she shares, “I didn’t see anybody who looked like me on a magazine cover in America. Now, my kids or my friends’ kids or my nieces are going to grow up seeing girls like themselves, and the more that happens, the more we normalise a cosmopolitan world that is full of all kinds of people.”
For a lot of people, I’m an introduction to what India is,” she says. “It’s like, ‘Oh, this is what happens at an Indian wedding.’” She relishes her role as de facto cultural ambassador though: “I love cross-pollination and I want to be able to educate people about this incredible culture I grew up in.”
This is why she and Jonas are producing an upcoming Amazon reality series where couples of different faiths and ethnicities “come and, instead of a boring rehearsal dinner, have a sangeet”—a lively Indian pre-wedding reception.
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An avowed feminist, Chopra Jonas plans to fuse her philanthropic efforts with those of her husband’s, and continue using her celebrity to promote education and women’s rights through her work with the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) and the Global Citizen poverty-eradication initiative.
“My heritage,” she adds, “has given me the confidence to experiment and wear different things. I’d wear an amazing kurta from Sabyasachi with jeans.”
For her everyday style, Chopra Jonas prefers to “be comfortable yet put together”. “But at home, I’m a sweats ninja—that’s what my husband calls me,” she says with a chuckle. Whatever she puts on, the non-negotiable accessory is confidence. Which, she insists, is something “you’re not born with; anyone can learn”.
And the trick to that? “Finding your strengths instead of focusing on your weaknesses,” she says. “Everyone has flaws; I have a million of them and being a public person, I get told about all of them.” But she has learned how to not be so hard on herself, work through her insecurities and learn, ultimately, that “you’re your own best friend”.
Photographer: Yu Tsai
Stylist: Martina Nilsson
Makeup: Rachel Goodwin/Streeters
Hair: Bridget Brager/The Wall Group
Manicure: Christina Aviles/Star Touch Agency
Production: 88 Phases
Producer: Trever Swearingen
Digital technician: Luis Jamie
Photographer’s assistants: Jamie Kang, Max Maurov, Danya Morrison
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