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A Norwegian occupational therapist has bared her birthmarks which cover most of her stomach and thighs to show that being unique is beautiful – and says she’ll never have them removed.
Mathilde Arctander, from Stavanger in Norway, had always had the birthmarks but it wasn’t until her teenage years that she started to notice other people’s horrible stares. This sparked the brunette beauty to start questioning whether something was wrong with her.
“I always knew that I had birthmarks, but when I was around 13 years old people stared at me,” says Mathilde. “I wasn’t bullied a lot but I often thought, ‘What’s wrong? Why do I have these marks?’ which wasn’t fun,” she says.
Since then the 22-year-old has learnt to fully embrace her individuality after getting fed up of hiding her marks.
“I’m unique. I may not be normal, I don’t have normal skin, and that’s ok. I no longer wake up each morning and wonder why I have them. My birthmarks are a part of me and I wouldn’t get rid of them if I had the choice,” says Mathilde.
When she began displaying her birthmarks she received many positive comments from people who called her “beautiful” and “brave”.
Mathilde has congenital melanocytic nevus (CMN) – benign pigment cells that are present at birth or develop shortly after birth according to DermNet. She’s attended an array of conferences in America to meet other people with the same condition.
“I have been to nevus outreach conferences in the USA several times and have met others with CMN,” she says.
She now encourages people not to cover up their marks and fully appreciate their unique quality.
“And get to know others with it too. It will build your confidence up and then you won’t care about those who don’t understand how nice birthmarks are,” she says.
Sources: Magazine Features
