"You look like you are dirty, take a wash" - Teenage girl whose body is almost covered with birthmarks.

A teenage girl who has been verbally abused for years by other children has revealed how she has come to love the hundreds of birthmarks covering her face and body.
Ciera Swaringen, 19, of Rockwell, North Carolina, was diagnosed with Giant Congenital Melanocytic Nevus after being born with the oversized mole-like marks.

They cover more than two-thirds of her body, with the largest one stretching from her navel to her lower thighs. 

Since she was a small child, she has had to endure cruel taunts from other children - and adults - but she has developed a positive attitude towards her rare skin condition, which affects around one in every 500,000 people.

'Teenage boys are usually the first ones to comment when they see me,' she said. 'They say things like, "You look like you're dirty, take a wash."

'But I'm so proud to be different and, at the end of the day, we all have something about us that's unusual, whether it's on the inside or the outside.

'Everyone is born to look different, and we should all feel beautiful in our own skin.' 

The shoe-store clerk, who recently graduated from high school, admitted she used to struggle to overcome the negative comments she received.

She said: 'One day I remember being on the school bus and hearing a young boy laugh at me and call me a spotty dog.

'That really knocked my confidence, I was only young and it made me feel different to the other kids, like something was wrong with me.
'Over time I've learnt to brush off negative comments and remember that most people stare and say cruel things because they're not used to seeing someone with my condition.
'People in my town don't bat an eye when they see me now, as they know me. But if I go somewhere new, it's not so easy.'Ciera's body was dotted with dark brown birthmarks as a baby, which shocked medical staff at Stanley Memorial Hospital in Albermarle, North Carolina, where she was born - as well as her parents.Her father David, 55, a self-employed construction worker, and her Mum Julie Swaringen, 41, a shoe shop supervisor, took baby Ciera to Carolinas Medical Centre in Charlotte, North Carolina, where her birthmarks were analysed

.