A young adult female wearing a dark-colored top with short sleeves in an indoor setting with furniture like a table with a lamp and vase of white flowers, suggesting a comfortable living space. 1:36
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The birthmark this model once wanted removed

"I love my birthmark," says Cassandra Naud. "It just really makes me stand out." She's a 23-year-old fashion model and dancer from Los Angeles, and a large dark mark covers her cheek. more

It is a nevus, and in her line of work she counts it as an asset. "It definitely gives me, like, an edgier look," she says. At one audition, she remembers, the director saw her and said, "I love you, but not for this job. I have another job waiting for you."

It was not always this easy. Kids teased her about it growing up. "I had a lot of issues with my confidence," she says. The hardest stretch came right before high school. She was scared to start, and that's when she began thinking that maybe she did want it removed.

She changed her mind, and her mom had a lot to do with it. "My mom would always tell me, like, it's okay, and that I was beautiful." Removing the birthmark could also have left scarring. Asked whether she would make it disappear if there were no risk of scars at all, she says, "No, not now." She has fallen in love with it.

A young adult female wearing a dark-colored top with short sleeves in an indoor setting with furniture like a table with a lamp and vase of white flowers, suggesting a comfortable living space. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
"I love my birthmark," says Cassandra Naud.

Her boyfriend Patrick, who's also a professional dancer, is firmly on the birthmark's side. "I couldn't imagine her face without a birthmark," he says. "I just, I love it. I think it's so unique."

Plenty of people with birthmarks of their own answered her story. One has a mark across most of the left side of the face. Another has one that reaches right into an eye, and remembers crying as a child over what other kids said. These days, that viewer says, the confidence is there.

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