“The epidural was making me faint and blackout. ‘Bring her back!’ The nurses kept rushing in to put an oxygen mask on my face. I wanted to yell, cry. I couldn’t focus. ‘What can I do to pass the time?!’ My husband rushed back with my makeup bag. I started concealing away! When I posted my labor pictures, I was met with, ‘She’s so vain.’ ‘She doesn’t deserve to be a mother.’ Through all the pushing, sweat, and tears, my makeup stayed in place.”

‘Get my makeup bag!’ I was almost fully dilated. My husband looked back, confused.’: Woman shamed for giving birth in ‘full glam makeup,’ claims ‘it’s your labor, do what makes you happy’

‘Mutation.’ Really? I did not get severely burned, I did not get into a car wreck. I cannot wipe it off.’: Woman learns to accept birth mark ‘again’ after moving to new town
“I have a facial difference that I cover daily. I haven’t had the courage to show my facial difference. Why? Because the town I live in now, well, most of them have no idea it’s even there. I’m worried I’ll be dubbed ‘the girl with the birthmark,’ like I have so many times before.”

‘Every couple has fought on the way to a party, only to step out of the car smiling. We post pictures of our kids melting down, but never share photos crying after an ugly argument.’
“We have a wonderful marriage. But we also have bad days where I dread the sound of his car pulling into the garage. When I’m really mad, I imagine what my life would look like as a single mom. This is normal. It’s OK.”

‘I don’t use makeup because I’m ashamed of my disease but because I feel entitled to not be defined by it.’
“It’s a way to distract myself and hide the raw emotions of my mental, emotional, and physical struggles. The power of makeup has been a nice reminder that through my suffering, the true me is still in there.”