Brooke Parrish had only been alive for a few hours when doctors in her hometown in Kentucky realized that something was wrong.
They transferred her two hours away to a hospital in Louisville, where in March 1996 she was diagnosed with Pfeiffer syndrome, a genetic condition that caused the bones in her skull and elbows to fuse prematurely and also affected some fingers on her hands and feet. Throughout her childhood and adolescence, she did everything she could to cover herself up: she let her bangs grow out, avoided people’s stares, and tried to go unnoticed.
Today, at 29, she works as a university admissions advisor in Louisville and no longer hides from anyone. On TikTok, where more than 460.000 people follow her, she shares how she learned to respond to stares with a smile instead of shame, even when she worked as a cashier and customers would stare. You, too, can change the story you tell yourself about what makes you different.
