Our lovely new member Krishika shares her story below and aspires to “inspire others to love and accept what they are blessed with.”
I was born in India, a land of multi-diverse cultured people. I come from a place where nevus owners are very rare so growing up with CMN was challenging both mentally and physically.
My family were more concerned about my mental state and well-being, so they raised me in a way to protect me from any negative comments or bullying. I used to only buy clothes that would cover my body completely. As a child, having CMN, never really bothered me. However, when I grew up and entered my teens, I felt peer pressured to dress a certain way and that’s when my insecurity increased. I was in an environment where people could be quite narrow-minded. It was hard to be myself and, in their eyes, I had to look ‘normal.’ In the process of trying to fit into the circle, I lost my identity. I started to search for some alternatives that would cover my birthmark like cosmetics and formulated covering creams. For many years I was living a life which made me feel like I don’t belong to my true self.
One day I decided, it was not worth living a life where you can’t be the person you are. I realised that I would not be truly happy hiding my authentic self. It was not an easy process, in fact… it was an emotional roller coaster of a journey to make that shift with self-talk and several breakdowns on the way! I slowly started to introduce small changes to break out of the shell; I started to wear clothes that I liked even though they did not cover my birthmark and tried to get more comfortable in any kind of clothes I liked to wear. Now, I am still striving to work on myself to achieve all that I want to be and not let my physical skin condition be a barrier to it.
Dancing is my biggest passion. In recent years I have pursued professional training, in my training years it was quite challenging to be accustomed to different types of costumes I were asked to wear, I had to make alterations every time to cover my birthmark which was strenuous, and it made me want to discontinue dancing. Regardless, my die-hard passion never let my skin be a barrier for me to stop dancing and I continued to do so until one day I became the dance team head of my batch in my Undergrad College. I also recently started to pursue my fitness journey. Initially my insecurity stopped me. I used to think, “If I ever tone my body and build muscle, I won’t be able to ever show it off”. From wearing fully covered gym suits to choosing to wear gym wear that is comfortable and makes me feel empowered. I have gained the confidence to follow anything in my life and embrace my flaws rather than seeing it as an insecurity. So, hey… guess what?! I could be that one-of-a-kind fitness model someday!
I decided to make use of any opportunity I get involved in spreading awareness on CMN, I moved to the UK to pursue my master’s and one of the other main reasons was also to be a part of Caring Matters Now; an amazing place for me to meet fellow beautiful nevus owners and learn more about them too! I actively want to be involved in every initiative, which is why I joined the Equality Diversity and Inclusion group. I feel very motivated to be a part of this focus group as I can represent my ethnic group and be able to share any valuable insights to my best potential.
I promised to make it my purpose to inspire as many people as I can to love themselves and accept what they are naturally blessed with. I hope one day my story of how I overcame what I went through, will be someone’s survival guide.
