Gemma Whyatt had a life like any other girl, until adolescence arrived.
She was born with congenital melanocytic nevus, an incurable condition that left marks on her upper back, neck, chest and ear, as well as hundreds of smaller spots all over her body. As a child, she didn’t think much of it. She did gymnastics in a leotard that left everything on show. But at 13, she began to feel different, and she didn’t know anyone else with her condition. She took refuge in scarves, long sleeves and full-coverage swimsuits.
When she was 17, she booked a holiday in Spain with a friend and wore a bikini for the first time in years. No one stared or said anything. She remembers it as exposure therapy.
Today, at 24 and in her fourth year of medical school in Leeds, she is one of 30 people with this condition taking part in the exhibition “How Do You See Me Now?”. She posed without makeup or hairstyling in front of an unfamiliar photographer and describes it as terrifying. Even so, parents of children looking for hope are already writing to her from different countries.
“Beauty does not lie in the absence of birthmarks; it can be beautiful precisely because of them”, she says.
