Peer into one of Ayqa Khan's electric illustrations and one of the first things you'll notice, undoubtedly, is the presence of lush body hair dotting the legs, arms and chins of her stunning characters.

The women she draws, flanked by a mix of traditional South Asian motifs and totems of youthful American culture, are not hiding their stubble. They sit, stand and kneel in poses that do anything but hide their hair, as they smoke cavalierly behind a box of mithai or cruise across a roller rink. More often than not, her female subjects are seen legs and arms outstretched, faces calm, cool and collected amid a backdrop of saturated purples, greens and oranges.

"My intentions are to normalize [body hair]," she explained in an email exchange with The Huffington Post, "because it is something that shouldn't be a huge deal considering body hair is natural and the removal of it is a social construct." The young, New York-based photographer and digital illustrator is just as direct when she speaks of her desire to counter the stereotypical images of South Asian women in mainstream media.

"South Asian woman do not get enough representation in most spaces and I feel the need to express this in an organic way."