Photos: Woman With Giant Birth Mark Covering Back Reveals Why She Won't Listen To Bullies Anymore

When Yulianna Yussef was a little girl she never really thought about her birthmark. She played with her friends and spent time with her family just like every other child.

But when she turned eight everything changed. She started noticing people looked at her strangely and pointed. Some parents wouldn't let their children play with her.

Yulianna, who is now 25, has a huge birthmark (known as Congenital Melanocytic Naevus or CMN ) which covers most of her back and stretches around to her stomach.

She also has smaller marks over the rest of her body, including lots on her legs.


Speaking to Mirror Online, she said: "I was quite a happy and carefree child. Before I was eight-years-old, I didn't pay much attention to my birthmarks.

"I remember myself looking at my skin in the mirror pretty much without any particular emotions.

"But after eight I started to notice all these eyes on me and fingers that were point on my legs, and words that people liked to say. In three words - I was bullied.

"It wasn't only comments, parents of another children didn't let me to play with their kids because they thought that I was contagious."

As Yulianna, who lives in Warsaw in Poland, got older things only got worse and after years of teasing she started to just stay at home and only go outside when it was dark.

"When I was 14 or 15 years old, I went with my friend to the beach, and of course people looked at me.

"Some old woman came to me with her advice on how to remove my "warts", some waitresses in the cafe said unkind words to me. Lots of things like this happened that morning.

"My friend said to me "oh my God, Julie! Walking with you just like walking with a monkey".

"I know it was just words and in some ways it was a joke.

"I wasn't angry at her, but after this I began to just sit at home all summer and walked for one or two hours in the evenings when it was dark.

But when she grew older she decided enough was enough and it was time to start loving her body.

"I was so tired of hiding and being afraid of people, of their reactions and actions.

"I was hating myself for the weakness and that I felt so much pity towards myself.

"I then understood that nobody would help me just myself, to bring me up with my confidence.

She set up an Instagram account to show off photos of her birthmark and her life, and she now has 100,000 followers.

She said: "I'm happy I did.

"I want to be happy, healthy, feel beautiful and confident and sexy in my own skin and I am now. But it’s been a long way to this."

Yulianna will feature in a new exhibition at the Oxo Tower in London later this month called How do you C Me Now.