Mariana Mendes is from Brazil and she is 24 years old. She was born with a birthmark which covers a large portion of her face, however, it didn’t stop her from modeling for a fabulous photoshoot lately. She wanted to show what it means to be beautiful.
Birthmarks are blemishes on the skin that are noticeable at birth, or shortly afterward. However, Mariana’s birthmark has covered the part of her nose, her right eye, and her right cheek. This calls A congenital melanocytic naevus, it is a type of melanocytic nevus (or mole) found in infants at birth. This type of birthmark occurs in an estimated 1% of infants worldwide; it appears as a circumscribed, light brown to black patch or plaque, potentially very heterogeneous inconsistency, covering any size surface area and any part of the body. Melanocytic nevi often grow proportionally to the body size as the child matures. As they mature, they often develop thickness, and become elevated, although these features can also be present from birth.
Mariana did a laser surgery treatment when she was five years old in order to reduce the nevus because her mother was scared she’d be bullied for it, however, as per the below images, the stylist assistant from Juiz de Fora couldn’t be more satisfied with being different.
Too often people with birthmarks are stared at, laughed at, or even told to hide their natural skin color. However, Mariana is a good example as she shows about true beauty, it is ok to be different.
Mariana Mendes from Brazil was born with a birthmark that covers a large part of her face
It’s called congenital melanocytic nevus, and it’s estimated to affect just 1 in every 20,000 babies
Mariana’s mother was scared she’d be bullied for it, so she had laser surgery when she was five
The surgery didn’t have much of an effect, but Mariana is glad
“I feel more beautiful and totally different from other people because I have a nevus,” she said
“I have been told by a few people that it’s “ugly” or “strange”, but it doesn’t bother me”
“I don’t get upset if a person doesn’t like my nevus, to me, it’s like any other part of my body”
“I’m proud of having a nevus, it’s a part of who I am and how I learned to like myself”
“I will never be ashamed of my nevus and feel good having it”
I am a Business Management graduate from the University Of Staffordshire (UK) and a qualified personnel officer who completed the National Diploma of Training and Human Resource development at Institute of Personnel Management (Sri-Lanka).
Apart from my professional career in the field of HRM, I am also a freelance writer of web and business contents.
