This Teen Was Brutally Bullied For Having Over 500 Birthmarks, But Look At Her Now
Alba Parejo was born with over 500 birthmarks on her body and was brutally bullied as a child. Now, at 16 years old, Alba has found success and happiness by learning to love her skin condition, and the beautiful girl is encouraging others to do the same.
The Barcelona native suffers from a rare form of the skin disease called melanocytic nevus, which caused large moles and dark patches of skin to form all over her body and face. She had surgery to correct several areas as an infant, which has left her with major scarring. Though her peers called her a ‘monster’ and relentlessly tortured her, she bravely decided to pursue a modeling career with her unconventional beauty.
Alba’s beautiful photos have been featured on the cover of a local magazine, and she has done a number of professional photoshoots. She’s also campaigning for self-love, and spreading awareness of others living with skin disease. “I feel much more body positive and am trying to make my disease more well known in order to help other people,” the photo model wrote on a personal page.
This is Alba Parejo, a 16-year-old who was born with large birthmarks all over her body
Image credits: Sonia and Andrés Burgos
She suffers from congenital melanocytic nevus, a rare disease that caused her to have over 500 of these marks
Image credits: Àngel Carbonell
Children with CMN are born with large, dark patches of skin that form ‘satellite’ moles across their bodies as Alba pictured here
Image credits: Alba Parejo
She underwent 30 surgeries to correct parts of her skin as an infant, and now has large areas of scarring
Image credits: Alba Parejo
As a child, Alba was horribly bullied, with her peers calling her a ‘monster’ and ‘dalmation’
Image credits: Alba Parejo
After years of struggling, she bravely decided to share her story and bare her skin to the world
Image credits: Alba Parejo
People responded very positively and she gained the courage to enter a modeling competition to become the public face for an empowerment campaign
Image credits: Alba Parejo
Now Alba is a model featured on billboards, buses and in newspapers
Image credits: Sonia and Andrés Burgos
“I feel much more body positive and am trying to make my disease more well known… to help other people” She wrote online
Image credits: Àngel Carbonell
She uses hashtags like #bareyourbirthmark on Instagram, encouraging others to embrace their skin
Image credits: Àngel Carbonell
Alba just keeps rising above her difficulties and empowering others, and we hope she never stops
Image credits: Alba Parejo
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Share on FacebookIf I'm being honest here the scarring/birthmark on her legs kinda shocked me at first, but I do love her smile. The spots on the rest of her are honestly cute I think, it's kinda like a signature. Anyone else remember the lady with the random white strip of hair on her head? It's things like these that make us stand out! I'd love to have a mark like this! Definitely something to be proud of, I think they're beautiful. And dang, if anyone called me a Dalmatian, I'd say "thank you". I love those dawgs.
I think her legs are the result of a surgery :/ (the major indent near the thighs - that's at least what it looks like). But I still think she looks lovely - nobody is perfect anyway. It's our imperfections that make us beautiful :)
Load More Replies...Her peers were idiots for bullying her. It is not her fault she was born like that. Anyway, she is a beautiful girl and she is unique! Oh, wait... I forgot most modern young people follow stereotypes and bully everyone who is a bit different in their appearance or understandings. It had happened to me only because unlike other people I love to write for nature and I like snakes, bugs, rats and other "nasty" animals.
Not just modern young people :/ it's been going on as long as there has been people
Load More Replies...Sorry, all I'm thinking is she is adorable and is a human Dalmatian! Not to sound rude, Dalmatians are adorable!
A girl I know from the Philippines told me that some people believe that skinmarkings tell something about your character and future. Like when you have a lot of birthmarks in your neck, that means you are very much loved by the other sex. Or when they are on your fingers that means you are artistic. This girl must be a prodigy in everything she does 😊. And her smile certainly wins my love
I don't have them either on the neck nor fingers
Load More Replies...Just because you pity her?(dont get me wrong id also help her.)
Load More Replies...My daughter was born with one of these birthmarks on her cheek, just in front of her ear, and is as long as her ear, and about 15mm wide. She is 6 years old, and starting to become self conscious of it. Since she was a baby, we have told her it's all her freckles in one place, and called it her "beauty spot". We even drew a matching birthmark on her favourite dolly when she was a toddler, so they were the same! I'm going to show her this article, because this girl is amazing, and it will show my daughter that she shouldn't be ashamed of her birthmark.....ever!
She's beautiful. I know it doesn't compare, but I was born with a good-sized birthmark on my left cheek. It was removed when I was 13, and I was so happy when I finally got it off, because the other kids made my life hell over it - but I wish now that I'd been brave enough to own it as something that made me unique instead of bowing to peer pressure. You go, girl. Don't let anyone tell you you're not lovely.
Ugh, "kids".Being mean to others is something that's taught, we are not born bullies. Raise children who embrace everyone for their beauty.
This just made me think how much more interesting life would be if we had patterned skin. All the effort people go to with tattoos and she has her skin illuminated from birth, I think she looks different and lovely.
I for one, think I would gladly take up a relationship with this girl, so long as she has pretty on the inside, that truly is the important thing to me.
I hate bullying, just bluntly saying that. I get bullied internally and by that I mean I get stares of disgust, girls whispering behind my back about god-knows-what but I've slowly learnt to pretend I don't notice though it still hurts me so bad. I admire Alba, she's so strong and extremely brave to put those photos out in the big World to show others. Just Just a Purpler commented below, I was a little surprised by how scared her upper thighs are but that's just her own beauty in a different way from others, I soon realized, and I love it in it's own way. Even though I don't suffer from this disease or I don't know anyone who does, I've always been insecure about my body and this really helped me. Thank you BoredPanda and Alba for sharing this, it's just an inspiration to see posts like this and it teachers me to keep fighting for my rights.
What a beautiful face! .....and, following her history and determination, I bet a fabulous personality!
She's very brave! My little great nephew has this disorder and will need someone to look up to when he gets old enough to go to school.
It looks like she stood near a chocolate machine that exploded :) I don't mind birthmarks. I have one like that on my leg and worked with someone that is just as "spotty" is this girl and I think it makes people more interesting. It's fascinating (and sometimes shocking) to see it for the first time, but after a while you get so used to seeing the different colouring that you don't notice it any more. I don't know why you would bully someone with birthmarks. Maybe stare a little at first and then get over it...
She is beautiful. If I had marks like these I would probably cover my leg area where it's huge but the others should be fine. It's just a shame that that children can be so cruel to eachother.
Can we just take a moment to admire her beauty? I mean COME ON, she's so beautiful u can't ignore that. :)
My thoughts were that she's an old soul, and these are the markings of things that happened to her in past lives. I don't know if reincarnation is real, but I love the idea. If it is, all of her lifetimes have shaped her into a beautiful fearless person. That's at least what I see.
Anybody doesn't like her birthmarks can shut their eyes, along with their mouths. It's none of their business.
My adopted son was born with NF1, he has cafe latte patches throughout his body, underarms and genial areas. He also was bullied throughout his childhood. We feel your pain.
You go girl!! While our looks are the first thing we present, the inside is what creates a lasting image. You are beautiful.
Alba is gorgeous. Learning to love ourselves as we are is truly important.
She is beautiful, birthmarks and all. I am so sad about the bullying though.. If there was one thing I could remove this world with a magic wand, that would be it.
They tried when she was little - and see how her thighs are deformed now? There's probably not much you can do.
Load More Replies...If I'm being honest here the scarring/birthmark on her legs kinda shocked me at first, but I do love her smile. The spots on the rest of her are honestly cute I think, it's kinda like a signature. Anyone else remember the lady with the random white strip of hair on her head? It's things like these that make us stand out! I'd love to have a mark like this! Definitely something to be proud of, I think they're beautiful. And dang, if anyone called me a Dalmatian, I'd say "thank you". I love those dawgs.
I think her legs are the result of a surgery :/ (the major indent near the thighs - that's at least what it looks like). But I still think she looks lovely - nobody is perfect anyway. It's our imperfections that make us beautiful :)
Load More Replies...Her peers were idiots for bullying her. It is not her fault she was born like that. Anyway, she is a beautiful girl and she is unique! Oh, wait... I forgot most modern young people follow stereotypes and bully everyone who is a bit different in their appearance or understandings. It had happened to me only because unlike other people I love to write for nature and I like snakes, bugs, rats and other "nasty" animals.
Not just modern young people :/ it's been going on as long as there has been people
Load More Replies...Sorry, all I'm thinking is she is adorable and is a human Dalmatian! Not to sound rude, Dalmatians are adorable!
A girl I know from the Philippines told me that some people believe that skinmarkings tell something about your character and future. Like when you have a lot of birthmarks in your neck, that means you are very much loved by the other sex. Or when they are on your fingers that means you are artistic. This girl must be a prodigy in everything she does 😊. And her smile certainly wins my love
I don't have them either on the neck nor fingers
Load More Replies...Just because you pity her?(dont get me wrong id also help her.)
Load More Replies...My daughter was born with one of these birthmarks on her cheek, just in front of her ear, and is as long as her ear, and about 15mm wide. She is 6 years old, and starting to become self conscious of it. Since she was a baby, we have told her it's all her freckles in one place, and called it her "beauty spot". We even drew a matching birthmark on her favourite dolly when she was a toddler, so they were the same! I'm going to show her this article, because this girl is amazing, and it will show my daughter that she shouldn't be ashamed of her birthmark.....ever!
She's beautiful. I know it doesn't compare, but I was born with a good-sized birthmark on my left cheek. It was removed when I was 13, and I was so happy when I finally got it off, because the other kids made my life hell over it - but I wish now that I'd been brave enough to own it as something that made me unique instead of bowing to peer pressure. You go, girl. Don't let anyone tell you you're not lovely.
Ugh, "kids".Being mean to others is something that's taught, we are not born bullies. Raise children who embrace everyone for their beauty.
This just made me think how much more interesting life would be if we had patterned skin. All the effort people go to with tattoos and she has her skin illuminated from birth, I think she looks different and lovely.
I for one, think I would gladly take up a relationship with this girl, so long as she has pretty on the inside, that truly is the important thing to me.
I hate bullying, just bluntly saying that. I get bullied internally and by that I mean I get stares of disgust, girls whispering behind my back about god-knows-what but I've slowly learnt to pretend I don't notice though it still hurts me so bad. I admire Alba, she's so strong and extremely brave to put those photos out in the big World to show others. Just Just a Purpler commented below, I was a little surprised by how scared her upper thighs are but that's just her own beauty in a different way from others, I soon realized, and I love it in it's own way. Even though I don't suffer from this disease or I don't know anyone who does, I've always been insecure about my body and this really helped me. Thank you BoredPanda and Alba for sharing this, it's just an inspiration to see posts like this and it teachers me to keep fighting for my rights.
What a beautiful face! .....and, following her history and determination, I bet a fabulous personality!
She's very brave! My little great nephew has this disorder and will need someone to look up to when he gets old enough to go to school.
It looks like she stood near a chocolate machine that exploded :) I don't mind birthmarks. I have one like that on my leg and worked with someone that is just as "spotty" is this girl and I think it makes people more interesting. It's fascinating (and sometimes shocking) to see it for the first time, but after a while you get so used to seeing the different colouring that you don't notice it any more. I don't know why you would bully someone with birthmarks. Maybe stare a little at first and then get over it...
She is beautiful. If I had marks like these I would probably cover my leg area where it's huge but the others should be fine. It's just a shame that that children can be so cruel to eachother.
Can we just take a moment to admire her beauty? I mean COME ON, she's so beautiful u can't ignore that. :)
My thoughts were that she's an old soul, and these are the markings of things that happened to her in past lives. I don't know if reincarnation is real, but I love the idea. If it is, all of her lifetimes have shaped her into a beautiful fearless person. That's at least what I see.
Anybody doesn't like her birthmarks can shut their eyes, along with their mouths. It's none of their business.
My adopted son was born with NF1, he has cafe latte patches throughout his body, underarms and genial areas. He also was bullied throughout his childhood. We feel your pain.
You go girl!! While our looks are the first thing we present, the inside is what creates a lasting image. You are beautiful.
Alba is gorgeous. Learning to love ourselves as we are is truly important.
She is beautiful, birthmarks and all. I am so sad about the bullying though.. If there was one thing I could remove this world with a magic wand, that would be it.
They tried when she was little - and see how her thighs are deformed now? There's probably not much you can do.
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