Woman Bullied For Her Rare Condition Finally Gets Some Much-Deserved Revenge

Yulianna Yussef wasn’t that concerned with the birthmarks that covered her body as a child. Her memories are filled with typical kid stuff, playing with friends and feeling happy and loved by her family. Sadly, that carefree period didn’t last long.

By age eight, Yulianna noticed people reacting negatively to her body. As far as she knew, the only difference between her and her friends were melanin variations. So why did some people act like she was contagious?

Doctors had little information for Yulianna’s mother about what her birthmarks meant for her overall health. While they tried to put on a positive face, Yulianna quietly resented her body, viewing it through the lens of gawking strangers.

In public, Yulianna constantly had her birthmarks brought to her attention. As she told the Mirror, “I started to notice all these eyes on me and fingers that were [pointing at] my legs, and words that people liked to say. In three words — I was bullied.”

On a beach outing with a friend, 15-year-old Yulianna was pushed to her limit. Strangers openly pointed and commented on her exposed skin. She was already extremely uncomfortable when another beach goer walked right up to her with something to say.

An adult woman took it upon herself to start a conversation with Yulianna about her birthmarks, speaking about them like they were a problem she could fix. She offered some crazy suggestions about how to remove the birthmarks while Yulianna was frozen in humiliation.

Reeling from the audacity of strangers, Yulianna turned to her friend for comfort. Instead, the pal surprised her with a scathing wisecrack of her own. She told her that walking around in public with her was like walking around with a monkey.

The ignorance took its toll on Yulianna. She left the beach determined to stay indoors. Her thoughts circled, “I was a Dalmatian, a giraffe, a cow. I was dirty, people thought that if they spoke to me, my birthmarks would jump at them!”

For several years Yulianna made an effort to hide her body. Not only did she resent her birthmarks, she felt reinforced in thinking that the world would never be able to accept someone who looks like her.

Eventually, Yulianna’s period of isolation exhausted her. She’d spent most of her teens shielding her skin from the eyes of others, and she was sick of wasting her hours inside. She knew she deserved to live and participate in the world without fearing insensitive treatment.

On her next outing with bare skin, Yulianna braced for the rude stares and comments. She went to rent a scooter and soon enough, she clocked a woman looking at her legs. Preparing for the stranger’s remark, she was surprised to hear the woman compliment her tattoo.

This small interaction had a profound effect on Yulianna. She realized her worries over getting bullied for her appearance were stopping her from enjoying things preemptively. When in fact, someone might notice her for entirely innocuous reasons.

Feeling empowered in her skin led Yulianna to learn more about her diagnosis. Her skin condition has a name — congenital melanocytic nevus. For the first time, she leaned into CMN visibility; she wanted to represent the 1 in 50,000 people born like her.

Life with CMN isn’t that much different from those born without it. People with this condition need to be diligent with sunscreen application. Each birthmark, or nevus, can be at greater risk for melanoma. Also, those areas tend to get itchy.

While the physical symptoms of CMN are not that extensive, many people with this condition have anxiety and body image issues. So Yulianna started using her social media platforms to show off her birthmarks and inspire others who might feel unrepresented.

Fairly quickly into her CMN activism, Yulianna’s Instagram following grew into the six digits. She used her status as an influencer to promote body positivity and self-confidence, which led to her an offer to be an official CMN ambassador.

As a brand ambassador, she met others with CMN and they shared their experiences. Fans reached out to Yulianna expressing what having her as a beautiful unapologetic representative has meant for their own self-acceptance journeys.

For Yulianna, embracing her CMN comes down to one simple principle. “Never be ashamed of who you are! You have to accept who you are, because if you don’t do it, why should anyone else?” she posed.

Of course, her large public platform does leave her open to the scrutiny of internet trolls. There are still people who make hateful comments about her birthmarks on her posts or try to discredit her self-acceptance.

Yulianna doesn’t let ignorance stop her. She works hard to make the world less reactive to bodies like hers, and more thoughtful and educated in their responses to difference.