00:00You can see the pressure I'm putting on my skin.
00:05That is real.
00:16A port wine stain is basically, in the easiest terms possible, a triple amount of capillaries
00:24that have built up under this side of the skin over here.
00:26It can develop blebs, it can get darker, and really it could be lighter, darker depending
00:31on emotional state, temperature, just a variation of factors that are environmental and internal.
00:38When kids see it, I just say, oh, it's like a big red freckle.
00:41And then SWS is Serge Weber syndrome, which is why I have this in my eye and why I have
00:46even more difficult time getting medical treatment when I need it.
00:49I was reading books about my condition at the age of 8, 9, 10, 11 years old, so I was
00:55reading
00:55all these very scientific terms and trying to understand what was going on with my skin
00:59and my face.
01:00And so those moments in childhood, it definitely made things difficult on the terms of confidence.
01:08And that's when I was, I want to say like 9, 10 years old, that's when I first started
01:12wearing makeup.
01:13In your mind, you hoped it would be like a magic fix, and in a way it does lessen the
01:16attention,
01:17but it's definitely one of those things that's a little complex.
01:20Sometimes even now, when I do makeup, it doesn't feel natural.
01:23I've had these back and forth moments of choosing whether I'm going to wear makeup or choosing
01:28whether I'm going to embrace it, and I'm just in this moment in my life now where I'm like,
01:32I think that we can just do both.
01:34And I know a lot of people are like, why is it that you only post about this on social
01:37media and this?
01:38Because it may not be that to you, but to me, it is my entire existence.
01:42Everywhere I go, everyone I talk to, why does your face do?
01:44Why is it red?
01:45Did you get beat up?
01:46I have all the questions, so many questions, and I've just spent a lot of my life advocating
01:52for others or trying to be an example for others that looking different doesn't mean
01:58that you're less.
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