Mui Thomas was born in Sai Kung, Hong Kong, with harlequin ichthyosis, a genetic condition so rare that she is now believed to be the fourth-oldest living person with it. Her skin is thick, dry, and scaly like a fish’s. She does not sweat. But she does cry.
In high school, she needed an assistant all the time, and that isolated her even more. Then came bullying at school, followed by cyberbullying. There were times, her family says, when Mui was on the verge of taking her own life. She even stopped bathing and applying her cream, tired of fighting against her own body for two hours a day, twice a day.
Her father ended up writing a book about her, ‘The Girl Behind the Face’. And Mui, over time, found her place: she works full-time with people with special needs and on weekends she is a children’s rugby referee. You, too, may be carrying something invisible to others and still find a reason to keep going.