A French teenager has kicked off a new Twitter trend which supports women who choose not to remove their body hair after she was teased at school for not shaving.

According to the Mail Online, 16-year-old Adele Labo started the hashtag #LesPrincessesOntDesPoils – which means “Princesses have hair” – to show women that the removal of underarm, leg and facial hair should be viewed as a choice rather than a necessity.

Since the tag first emerged, it has been used over 25,000 times on Twitter as women take to social media to share pictures of their hair.

#LesPrincessesOntDesPoils so tired of the stigma around women and their NATURAL body hair pic.twitter.com/UMWSZShgCU

— Céline Montaudy (@celinefrancesca) July 13, 2016

In a video shared by AJ+, the Lille teen said: “I created the hashtag to encourage people to post about their body hair and relax, be comfortable with their own body.”

“And I wanted women in general to not feel obliged to shave their hair but to feel that they have a choice.”

“In society, the woman has to be shaved, soft, beautiful.  We ask the woman to be natural and herself but we impose a lot of stigma on [hair] and it bothers me.”

#LesPrincessesOntDesPoils used the pretty filter because pretty and hairy aren't mutually exclusive  pic.twitter.com/FYa429IsCs

— Olivia Cassano (@liv_css) July 13, 2016

Adele was keen to stress that the movement is about acknowledging that the removal of body hair should be viewed as a personal choice rather than some form of social obligation and said she is not implying that all women should stop shaving and waxing in favour of a more natural look.

She said: “[Remove your hair] if you really want to.  But if you feel obliged to do it, don’t.”

“The movement is not at all to prevent women from [shaving].  It’s really to tell women they have the choice.  They shouldn’t feel forced.”

hé ?#lesprincessesontdespoils pic.twitter.com/VAj49ysVfD

— ciel et toi lait (@adelelabo) July 11, 2016

“They shouldn’t feel dirty or ashamed for not doing it because it is normal.”

The tag has launched quite the debate online with some Twitter users saying they wish they'd had Adele’s courage when they were a teen, while others have described the trend as “disgusting and foolish”.