Sarah Taylor is a gal with a very popular Instagram account.
She’s also got quite a large birthmark on her face.
Rather than covering her birthmark with makeup, Sarah has decided to post a lot of pictures of herself on Instagram in an attempt to normalise people who may look a bit different and erase some of the stigma attached to facial markings.
Her bio even says: “issa birthmark” – just in case anybody was wondering.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BbGDXBMgWQ8/?taken-by=sruhtaylor
Sarah told Allure that she’s often been judged for having a birthmark in such a prominent spot on her body.
She said that she used to feel quite self-conscious about her face because of the amount of attention that she got.
“What’s that thing on your face?” was the typical inquiry. I’d say “my birthmark”, and they would say, “Oh wow, I’m really sorry.”
“While I did have people explicitly insult me, it was the little nuances in how people acted whenever my birthmark was brought up that really made me ashamed to have it.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcD-D_7ghO-/?taken-by=sruhtaylor
However, once Sarah started high school and began hanging around with some other people, she realised that her birthmark was nothing to be ashamed of.
“Once I stopped focusing so much on what I thought other people were thinking about me, I started to grow into myself.
“Somewhere in the storm of me learning to love myself for who I was, I stopped caring what people said about me.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcBAXMrAUJI/?taken-by=sruhtaylor
Sarah currently has almost 10,000 followers on Instagram, with many of them regularly leaving comments commending her not for covering up her birthmark in any way.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BbQg1I1g-rb/?taken-by=sruhtaylor
“Proud of you,” wrote one person. “My birthmark is twice as big as yours on my face… and you are right … childhood not always easy.”
“So happy to see someone else with a port wine stain!” wrote another.
Images via Sarah Taylor Instagram.
