Lucy Beall-Lott, 21, has a skin condition called recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (EB).
Her skin is very fragile and any friction against it causes it to shed, leaving painful blisters and wounds.
After years of dealing with the condition, the student’s body is covered in scar tissue, which is tighter and makes it harder to move.
Lucy, originally from Texas but now living in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland, has to be careful when she does anything, even brushing her teeth or eating, with scar tissue forming where food grazes her throat.
She’s had many operations throughout her life to try help. Her most recent procedure involved having skin from her leg grafted on to her hands to try and resolve the ‘mittening’ caused by excessive scar tissue, which had rendered her right hand unusable.
Living with the condition has been hard for Lucy as she would be judged by strangers and they would ask things like if she had been in a ‘horrific accident’ or ‘mauled by a gorilla’.
Lucy said: ‘I can’t count the amount of times I’ve been told to my face or behind my back that I’d be hot if it weren’t for my scars, or have been referred to as “the girl with the scars” as though they were my only defining feature and negate all other aspects of my appearance or personality.’
She is now studying art history and classics at the University of St Andrews, while working as a disability advocate and author.
Lucy also models in order to raise awareness of her condition and show that disability doesn’t have to stand in the way of beauty.
Recently, she was invited by Vogue Italia to take to feature in Italian clothes brand Fantabody’s ‘I AM THE WOMAN I AM’ campaign.
Lucy said: ‘I really can’t believe that I am able to experience this opportunity. I never would have thought that my so-called ‘ugly’ legs would get me into Vogue.’
Revealing the images on her Instagram page @Lucy_bealll, Lucy said: ‘I wish I could tell myself, crying in my closet whenever I was fifteen because I despised my ugly scars, that one day my body would give me not only a life I loved but also an opportunity to share my story and image with Vogue.
‘I truly have no words to say besides thank you.’
Doing the shoot has given Lucy more confidence and she says it has helped her change how she sees her scars.
‘I know that I have a terminal condition, it’s going to make my life shorter, but I’ve known that for 21 years,’ Lucy said.
‘I could see my scars as something I’m fighting against, or I could see my body as something working to keep me alive – which is better?’
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/03/16/woman-skin-blisters-touched-becomes-model-vogue-12404846/?ITO=squid
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