A woman born with fluid-filled cysts on her face was branded a monster and trolled by 10,000 strangers – but is now happier than ever.
Indira de Rooij, 25, was born with lymphatic malformation – where the lymph vessels are formed abnormally – when her parents noticed something was wrong with her face.
The cysts were on her chin, tongue and throat and she had to have a tracheotomy to help her breathe and over 30 surgeries to reduce the deformities.
Indira stopped performing surgeries when she reached school age because of the risk of facial paralysis.
She has finally come to terms with how she looks, but has suffered years of bullying and says cruel kids would take pictures of her.
She was even trolled on X, officially Twitter, at the age of 16 after being compared to a monster with a disfigured face – which racked up 10,000 likes.
Indira has undergone many therapies and is now feeling happier.
Indira, a nurse, from Almere, Netherlands said: “I went viral when I was 16. I was compared to a movie monster with a facial disfigurement.
“It got 10,000 likes.
“Not a day goes by that people don’t look at me and laugh at me.
“I have accepted my other half and the way I look.
“No matter what I look like, people will always be mean.
“I’ve never been happier than I am this year.”
Indira was diagnosed when she was just a few hours old.
She said: “My mum saw something was wrong with my face.
“They noticed that my breathing was obstructed.”
Indira underwent emergency surgery to do a tracheotomy as the cysts block 70% of her airway.
She was in hospital for three months – when her heart stopped twice and she had to have several operations to remove cysts from her chin.
Indira said: “The biggest deformations are the size of a ping-pong ball, but some parts you can’t even see with a microscope.
“Eventually they stopped because of the risk of paralysis.”
Indira’s parents pushed her to go to a normal school, but around the age of 12, Indira began to notice the reactions of strangers.
She helps: “They’ve always said, no matter what’s going on outside, she’s got the brains.
“Around the age of 12 or 13, I started seeing and noticing people looking at me and looking at me.
“They started taking pictures of me.
“You are a little anxious. It was really hard on my mental health.
“The pictures were circulating to me.
“People were looking at me and laughing at me.
“It feels very degrading.”
At the age of 16, a stranger found a picture of Indira and tweeted it – comparing her to a monster.
Indira said, “I went to therapy then.”
Indira has had more surgeries to remove her deformities as an adult, but is now stable.
Her deformities don’t affect her day – except she can’t swim and still has a tracheotomy so she can breathe.
Indira is looking for alternative ways to remove the cysts – such as with medicine.
She said: “I don’t want to do any dangerous surgery.
“I’ll never be 100 percent comfortable with the way I look because we all have these beauty standards, but it’s something I have to live with.”
Indira hopes that she can give confidence to others who are also affected by visual differences.
She said: “I think it’s very important to accept yourself. There will always be people who will not accept you.
“If you have big dreams and have a disability, it doesn’t mean you can’t do it.
“No one thought I would work as a nurse or live like I do now.”
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Image Source : nypost.com