A woman born with a large birthmark on her face is on a mission to encourage people to stop staring and embrace others with facial differences.
Caitlin Ounsworth, from Dartford, has a port wine stain, a non-threatening vascular condition caused by a capillary malformation in the skin.
Caitlin is encouraging people to embrace and accept those with facial differences
When she was little Caitlin was told by her mum it was because she “was kissed by fairies in mummy’s belly”.
But aged four it became apparent she was different from other children at St Anselm’s Catholic primary school in West Hill.
Caitlin, 21, said: “It was quite hard growing up with it. Primary school was probably the hardest because I was bullied really bad.
“It wasn’t by a lot of people, it was quite selected but it was brushed under the carpet quite dramatically.”
She added: “People have said some really bad things but being me I don’t want to let that affect me because if I let that affect me I’m not going to do the best I can to make sure little girls don’t go through that again.”
Growing up Caitlin said she was lucky to have a supportive family but like many young girls she felt pressured to fit in and comform.
She grew her fringe out and wore make-up in an effort to cover up her birthmark and stop people staring.
“There are photos of me in school with a covered birthmark and it makes me sad to look back on that because I would never do that now,” the shop worker said.
“I remember having such a long fringe it would come down and I couldn’t see properly.
“Now I look back and I was the only girl in my family with a full fringe – it sort of hits that it was to protect me in a way and it does make me feel sad.”
It’s only in recent years that Caitlin, who went on to attend St Catherine’s Catholic School for Girls in Bexleyheath, felt more confident in herself to proudly sport her differences.
Nowadays she fully embraces her birthmark and is encouraging other young girls impacted in a similar way to do the same.
She is sharing her story as part of the Changing Faces campaign, a charity supporting and raising awareness of people with facial differences.
The charity says reports of hostile behaviour have risen from a third of people with a visible difference in 2019, to more than two in five in 2021.
A third of people with a visible difference say they’ve been stared at because of it.
Caitlin said: “I grew up being ashamed of my birthmark, wishing that I could ignore what people would say.
“I questioned what I had done to be different and wondered if it was my fault.”
But now through her role as a vascular birthmark ambassador she attempts to educate people on the condition.
One of the main ways she does that is through TikTok, a video-focused social networking service where users shoot short videos on their phone.
“I have currently about 5,000 followers and a lot of them are people with birthmarks and facial differences,” Caitlin explains.
“It’s just informative, educational videos. There’s just so many different little things that make it easier for a child to understand.”
Caitlin says, when she was a child, it would have helped “massively” to have a positive role model who looked like her.
She added: “We’re in a society now where we have to fit into a specific beauty standard and if you don’t then you haven’t got much going for you.
‘If I happen to notice a curious child staring, I ask if I can tell them a little story of how I was kissed by a fairy in my mummy’s belly…’
“It’s hard living in a society like that. So if there were more people with differences and abilities it would just be so much more inclusive for everyone and it would end bullying.”
Caitlin regularly encounters difficult conversations working at a sportswear store at Bluewater shopping centre in Greenhithe.
“In the job I work in there is a lot of children and you do get the gawps,” she said. “You get the stares and the parents dragging their kid away because they think you’re violent and I’m not.
“Sometimes they say ‘Oh what happened to your face?’ and it’s like ‘well they are children, they don’t understand’.”
But instead of simply pulling them away she encourages the parents and their children to ask her questions.
“If I happen to notice a curious child staring, I ask if I can tell them a little story of how I was kissed by a fairy in my mummy’s belly,” she adds.
“Instead of their parents telling them off and turning the experience into an uncomfortable situation, I’d prefer that children learn about birthmarks and visible difference in a way they understand.”
Moving forward Caitlin would like to see more people with facial differences cast in TV shows and movies.
She believes having characters with different looks and abilities would create a much more inclusive environment.
Asked what character she’d introduce, Caitlin said: “I would have a Disney princess, 100%. I would have it plastered everywhere.
“I’d have it as me, I’m not going to lie: red hair, birthmark, blue eyes, that is what I’d do. Because it was my dream as a kid to have someone who looked like me to look up at.”
She added: “I always say to my birthmark community that our faces and bodies without our birthmarks would be like a garden without flowers. And we all know flowers are much more beautiful in the garden.”
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