12-year-old Craig shares his visible difference story

Hi everyone, It's been a little while since I shared a personal story from one of the community about their experience of living with a visible difference. This is Craig's.

Craig is 12 years old, from Wishaw in Scotland and he's an active member of our Youth Action Group.

Craig's visible difference story...

I have a facial cleft, which means that one of my eyes is lower than the other one. I’ve had three operations for it, but now it doesn’t affect me at all.

I started recognising I looked different when I was six or seven years old. I thought things like ‘Why do I look like this?’ and ‘Why is there no one else like me?’. I felt confused at first, but I quickly started doing much better and I feel good now. I have never been bullied as my friends just got to know me for who I am, we have never spoken about my difference. My first year of high school has also been going really well.

Sometimes people do walk past and stare at me, some people have even poked me in the face. This is something I would really like to change through raising awareness of what it’s like to live with a visible difference. My mum gets quite angry and can say things like ‘You see that Craig, they’re staring at you, you should go and say something to them!’. Sometimes I am also angry, but I am more often embarrassed and don’t feel I need to say anything.

If I feel like I need to speak to anyone about my difference I speak to my mum and the Youth Engagement Officer at Changing Faces or my pupil support teacher.

The main thing people should know about me is that I am just ordinary and that I am no different to anyone else.

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If you would like to share your visible difference story, we'd love to hear them and share them. Or if you simply want to read more stories from members of the community, head over to our Your Stories page on our website >>> changingfaces.org.uk/advice...

[SnakePlissken]

This is so inspiring! Thank you for this Craig.

[Hidden in reply to SnakePlissken]

Hi SnakePlissken, Welcome to the Changing Faces community. Glad you found Craig's story inspiring. We're going to try and post few more of this over the coming weeks, so hopefully you'll get to see them too. Have a great week. Paul

[Kental]

Thankyou for sharing your story Craig. My son is 8years old and was born with a cleft lip and palate. And although he has had a successful facial surgery he is very aware of his lip and feels "very different to everyone else in the world" and like you his friends accept him the way he is but others do not. Im hoping by sharing the experience of other children it will help him.