"I covered my birthmark for 34 years but now I don't want to hide from my kids"

SWNS

A mum who wore make-up to "cover up" her birthmark for 20 years says having kids helped her "love" her difference as she didn't want to "hide" from them.  Frith Zerfahs, 44, was born with a port wine stain birthmark and grew up without representation around her.  At aged eight she started having laser treatment to lighten the pigments in her birthmark and believes she was one of the first in Scotland to have this done.  She chose to have laser treatment herself aged 21 after strangers comments made her feel she needed to "fix" it.  But after meeting her husband, Peter Zerfahs, 47, and becoming a mum she realised she didn't want to "hide" from her four children - aged 10, eight, five and two.  Now Frith no longer wears make-up to cover up her birthmark and "loves" it.

Transcript

00:00It's a birthmark. I was born with it. It's called a port-red stain. Yes, like someone

00:13spilled wine on my face. It won't fade, in fact it will get darker. No, it doesn't hurt.

00:20No one hit me. I was not burnt or scalded. I know laser treatment is available. No, it

00:32will not remove my birthmark. I wasn't bullied as a child. My birthmark doesn't define me.

00:39Having one makes me kinder to those that deserve it and fiercer to those that don't. I am loved.

00:46I am enough. This is me and this is how I drew myself when I was a child and as a teenager.

00:53And this is how my children draw me. I wish I could have seen myself how they see me instead

00:57of wishing I was something else. But I'm grateful to them that I can see it now.

01:02Look what I found at Aldi.

01:07Representation.

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