Shark Tank’s Vineeta Singh says ‘95% comments’ on her posts are about her looks: ‘I’ve achieved so much in life but…’

Vineeta Singh is among the most successful businesswomen in India but even she has to face criticism about her looks. In a new interview with writer Chetan Bhagat, Vineeta spoke about all the trolling she has to suffer on social media, aimed at the way she looks or dresses. (Also read: Shark Tank’s Vineeta Singh says investor refused to meet her)

“I am CEO of a company and even now people comment ‘you don’t look good enough’, ‘you started a makeup brand because you look so bad’, people say such negative things,” she said that she no longer reads comments on her posts. She added, “Your appearance, as a woman, is given so much importance. Even on Instagram, I’ve achieved so much in life, but when I post something, 95% of the comments are about the way you look. It’s one of those things. It’s a by-product of being a girl.”

Vineeta, who featured as one of the ‘sharks’ on Shark Tank India, said women are often at a disadvantage. “Nobody asked why does Steve Jobs wear the same shirts. It was fine for Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs to wear the same T-shirt,” she added.

Vineeta said that people also ridicule her for starting a make up business (Sugar Cosmetics) rather than something more ‘serious’. However, she rubbishes their opinion because such people would think the same if she had started a ‘steel empire’ too.

Other sharks on Shark Tank included Ghazal Alagh of Mama Earth cosmetics, Lenskart CEO Peyush Bansal, Bharat Pe co-founder Ashneer Grover, boAt co-founder Aman Gupta, Emcure Pharmaceuticals CEO Namita Thapar and Shaadi.com founder Anupam Mittal.

Shark Tank is now being renewed for a second season. The promo for the Sony Entertainment Television show is out and announced that registrations for the new season are already open. On Shark Tank, entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to a panel of ‘sharks’, asking for their investment in exchange for equity in their company.