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She never thought her dream of being a model would come true because she doesn't fit the traditional standard of beauty.
But now Hannah Harpin is signed to two international modelling agencies, APL Model Management and Zebedee Talent, and she is thriving.
The 20-year-old from Mirfield, West Yorkshire, is bald, partially blind, deaf and has lost 50 percent of her pigmentation.
She was born with a rare condition called Hay-Wells syndrome which causes alopecia, scalp infections, dystrophic nails as well as abnormal development of skin, teeth and eyes.
Shortly after birth she lost all her hair and it never grew back.
"I remember crying because I didn't have any hair as a child and I was jealous of other children,” she says.
Losing her hair made her very insecure and she started wearing wigs to hide her head, but that didn't spare her from being bullied at school and in public.
"I have been bullied most of my life,” she says. “From being sworn at in the street to strangers assuming I have cancer due to my baldness. I've even been spat on by a boy and his friends filmed it.”
It got so bad that at one point she felt suicidal.
But Hannah has grown to be confident and proud of who she is. “I feel like I'm a strong woman and I feel like a bad b***h," the model says.
As difficult as life was for her when she was younger, Hannah always had dreams of being a model and hoped to break barriers in the beauty industry.
"But people said I would never make it,” she says.
“I wanted to be a model so I can help the fight against ableism and other forms of discrimination because I believe that everybody should have equal rights and be on the same level," she says.
In 2021 her wish became a reality when she was signed by her first agency Zebedee Talent.
Since then she has modelled in Venice and Amsterdam and earlier this year she made her debut at London Fashion week for Unhidden, an award-winning fashion brand for people with and without disabilities.
Hannah uses social media to share messages of positivity aimed at people with disabilities.
“Being on social media has definitely made me into a more confident person," she says.
She hopes to launch a charity that donates wigs to women who can't afford them and have lost their hair due to medical complications.
But most of all she wants to encourage people with disabilities to “love themselves”.
“It's okay to be who you are," she says.
SOURCES: MANCUNIANMATTERS.CO.UK, DAILYMAIL.CO.UK, YORKSHIREPOST.CO.UK, INSTAGRAM.COM, MIRROR.CO.UK, LONDONFASHIONWEEK.CO.UK
