A law student has hit out at "tracksuit slobs" who judge her for dressing up to go to lectures, saying people assume she's dumb because she "looks nice".
Paula Ursu, a Turkish student at Royal Holloway University, speaks five languages and volunteers in her spare time, but says she is constantly criticised for the way she looks.
"There have only been a few weeks of term but there’s already signs of a divide on campus: on one side, those of us who like to dress smartly for uni and the people who slum it around campus in tracksuits and pyjamas," she wrote in a blog for student site the Tab. "Personally, I’m already tired of the passive-aggressive remarks and having to explain why I’m wearing platforms to a Tuesday 9am. How I dress for uni is nobody’s business but mine and it’s time people realised that."
The 18-year-old, a former prefect at the independent Felsted School in Essex, added: "They think I’m superficial for wearing make-up and trying to make every detail of my outfit match. It’s hypocritical to judge someone solely on their looks like this.
"The most frustrating thing is when people actually assume I must be dumb because I’ve made an effort to look nice."