"Your ugliness is cool!": 5 people who are proud of the features of their appearance

It all started when photographer Waliid Shah saw his stomach. That is, he must have seen him before, he just didn't embarrass him, but here he did. And then Valiid became interested in the question of how people perceive their body, their imperfections. So the project "Your ugliness is cool!" (Rock Your Ugly) was born.

Valiid inspired many people to come out into the light, show their body and tell their story.

"I was about 14 years old when I developed a skin disease called "skin lichen". This is a fungal infection, because of which the skin seems to be covered with patches. I was at summer camp when we went swimming, and one of the girls noticed a big spot on my back. She then said with such disgust: "God, what's wrong with your back?“ At that time I had no idea what it was, I thought it was an allergy. My mom and I went to the dermatologist. He began to examine my back under the ultraviolet light, and it looked so creepy that mom burst into tears. The doctor explained that this is not a very rare disease, the fungus can occur on any skin, but some types of skin are more predisposed.

I tried everything, but nothing helped. At 24, I decided that it was time to learn to love this "ugly" part of me, now I'm 28, and I pay a lot of attention to my psychological state. One day I was walking down the street in the summer, and the child, looking at my back, exclaimed: "Mommy, look, Aunt has a card on her back!“ And I suddenly burst into tears, because the child looked at me and did not reason in terms of "beautiful" or "ugly".

I like to travel and communicate with people from different parts of the world. Yes, damn it, I have a map of the world on my back! And that's great."

"I can't hate any part of my body because it's a part of me, but I have to pick up clothes to cover some places on my body. First of all, it's the chest. I know it would be stupid of me to go crazy over something like this - it's just an image of my body, but I learned that only over time. It bothered me — the women in my family have always had luxurious forms. So I was worried that they were too small. I was shy, which also affected my relationship with the boys.

The other thing that worried me was my hand. When I was 11 months old, I slept next to my older sister, my brother was sick, and my mom was next to him all night. I fell off the bed and my hand got caught between the radiator grilles. When my mom woke up, I had already received a serious burn by that time. I wore long sleeves even in the summer to cover the burn, worried about the impression I make on people. Even children sometimes got scared when they saw my hands.

I was 12, I was wearing a denim jacket in the heat of summer, as usual. And then my sister said that if I wanted to go out with her and her friends, I should leave my jacket at home. It seemed to me that she was putting pressure on me, but the presence of my sister next to me gave me a sense of security. And I began to build up my own self-confidence and acceptance of my body. My family reminded me: if I'm really worried about my scars, I can have surgery.

It's funny, though, that people are embarrassed to ask me a question about my hand, although that's the last thing that bothers me right now. To be honest, right now I'm worried about how to gain back the weight I lost. This motivates me to take care of myself and what I eat <...>."

"There is a scar about 20 cm long on my body. I had a congenital heart defect, and my first operation took place before I was a year old, and the second when I was 9. I have about 5-6 different defects, and no one in the world has such a combination exactly.

During the second operation, I had a valve replaced with an artificial one, so you can literally hear that my heart is ticking like a clock. As I grew up, I began to compare myself with other girls and feel insecure because of my ugly scar. But with age I learned to live with him. Physically, I can only do 70% of what healthy people can do.

I get tired quickly and I need more time to recover. If I work 3-4 days in a row, it takes two days to recover. Because of this, of course, I don't feel great, because I am very motivated and responsible and would like to do more, but physically I can't. < ...> I believe that everything happens for some reason, although because of my illness I quit dancing at the academy in the Netherlands. It was my passion and dream, but I think if it wasn't for that, I would never have been where I am now. I'm enjoying life in Dubai, seeing amazing things and meeting amazing people."

"I seem self-confident to people, although I am very shy and sweet. Deep down, I'm not sure of myself, and in the mirror I see a completely different face than I imagine. In 2002, we moved to another city, and I needed to change schools. These were very difficult years, because my classmates had known each other for a long time, and I was new, and I was bullied. < ...> My depression is still with me, I think it will always be there, but I know how to cope with the "dark cloud". But my self-confidence is still low, and if I had money, I would have rhinoplasty. I edit the nose in all the pictures because I don't feel beautiful at all."

"I was poisoned because of my nose - often and a lot. I received comments in the spirit of: "If you have surgery, you will look much better." When I was younger, I watched one episode of the show where it was said that our imperfections are what makes us us, and we should be proud of it, and if you try to remove your flaws again and again, you will look just like everyone else."