Gloria Aste.Photo:Gloria Aste/Tiktok
Gloria Aste/Tiktok
A 20-year-old woman from Loveland, Colorado, is harnessing the power of social media, and creating awareness for her rare condition.
“I wanted to be open about my birthmark on social media because what I have is pretty rare and I grew up without seeing anyone that looked like me on anything,” she tells PEOPLE exclusively.
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“I want to make people aware of it and I’d love to see more people who have it embrace it,” she says.
“My goal with social media is to just make differences more mainstream because they can be beautiful.”
According to theNational Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD), congenital melanocytic nevus “are benign, tumor-like malformations resulting from faulty development of pigment cell (melanocyte) precursors in the embryo.” Most CMN’s — like the one Aste has — are present at birth and grow with the individual as they “aren’t on your skin, butareyour skin,” she elaborates.
On her TikTok, Aste proudly flaunts her birthmark, which covers her chest, back and part of her arm. Because of the rarity of the condition — giant CMNs occur once in 50,000 births, per NORD — Aste didn’t see many people who also had CMN when she was growing up, which is largely part of the reason why she’s purposeful about showing it off.
“I grew up with people constantly asking me questions about my skin,” she says. “The questions used to be more like ‘Did you color on yourself?’ However, as I have gotten older most people assume that it’s a blackout tattoo, which actually happens pretty often.”
Gloria Aste.Gloria Aste/Tiktok
With all that attention and questions coming her way, it’s only natural that she might have felt self-conscious about her birthmark. However, Aste reveals that other than a few moments in middle and high school, she is proud of her unique mark.
Though her specific CMN doesn’t take too much maintenance — she mostly has to keep that part of her body moisturized and out of the sun — it’s important to note that not all cases are as benign.
According toNationwide Children’s Hospital, some cases of CMN are actually indications of another condition called neurocutaneous melanosis which can affect the spine and brain and may cause seizures.
source: people.com
