Tatyana Fazlalizadeh is an American oil-painter, street artist and activist who started the Stop Telling Women to Smile project in 2012, a campaign which aims at tackling gender inequality, racism, harassment and the likes through street art.
Tatyana was inspired to begin the project after she herself dealt with constant harassment, unwanted cat-calling and unkind racist comments.
She speaks with women who have experienced all kinds of street harassment and creates portraits of them, captioning each image with messages like “Not here to be pretty for you”, “Women are not seeking your validation”, directed to offenders, which she then installs on street walls and blocks.
See some of her works below