Hi, you are “face to face with Shell”.
Please have a look at this video and/or read on:
This is quite a large topic, which I have divided into “parts”.
First of all, I want to say that I would never have gotten to where I am today if it wasn’t for my friends and family, and I shall be eternally grateful to them all.
I was severely burned when I was thirteen years old and along with the usual teenage stuff…I had to deal with looking different as well.
No one wanted to leave me out or intentionally left me out. It was hard for them [my family and friends] too. What should they do? Should they act differently? Make exceptions? No! Looking back, I am glad that I was treated the way I was. My mum and dad would tell everyone not to make any exceptions for me, which I feel was the right thing to do (looking back…lol). I was told off just like I would have been if I hadn’t been burned.
I remember being told that an “alleged” friend had said: “Yeah, Michelle thinks that no one will hit her, just because she has been burned”. I am not very sure if this other person did say these words or were they the words of the person telling me? Blaming someone else? I had never even thought about anything like that but if someone did hit me, did this person (or the one telling me) think that it was ok? It’s not ok to hit anyone…especially someone who has been injured and is in recovery. I am not very sure what was truly meant by this comment. More a reflection of themselves?
Comments like this are best ignored. I know, you might want to get to the bottom of what was said but do you really want to hang around with people like this? You don’t need this negativity in your life, especially when you are in recovery, you need positivity around you.
As I was getting a bit older and as my skin was starting to heal, the scars were looking a bit better, I was still attending hospital for more treatments; skin grafts, etc., but I was starting to feel more confident.
At about aged fifteen or so, I started to experiment with make-up. I was always interested in beauty and make-up, which probably made it easier for me to try new products and colours. Anyway, two of my friends and I were in town, and we went into a department store, looking at the make-up counters. A lady behind one of the counters offered to apply my two friends make-up. One got the “going out” look and the other got the “wedding look”. I was totally ignored by the woman behind the counter. I felt awful. Was I too ugly for make-up because I had scars?
We left the store and my friends were very excited, as they looked brilliant. They were giggling and laughing with each other, which I well understood, they looked great and obviously felt it. They had received something nice, a treat and both looked and felt amazing, which is the whole point of getting your make-up applied by a professional.
I felt really hurt and upset though; the fact that the woman had totally ignored me. I felt like I wasn’t allowed to be the same as them; I was disfigured, I looked different, I was the burned girl. I made my excuses and caught the bus home. I was so upset.
I am not sure if my friends ever realised what had happened or how I must have been feeling; and the woman behind the counter, did she even realise that she had ignored me? Why did she act that way? Did she have any idea what had just happened? Maybe she had no idea how to react to someone who was disfigured or she may not have had any experience on how to apply make-up onto scarred skin. Did she go home that night and feel terrible, as she had no idea what to do in a situation like that (as one of my very great friends recently explained to me)? All these questions…
I just remember being so hurt and felt so low. I was trying to be like everyone else but here was another situation reminding me that I WASN’T like everyone else…I was DIFFERENT.
I think it was the fact that I was totally ignored. It felt like no one even noticed me or how this made me feel.
My friends acted exactly the way they should have. Just because I had scars, were they not to get their make-up applied or have fun?
These were hard times, I felt like I was starting to feel like all the other teenagers out there but in reality…I wasn’t; especially when incidents like this happened.
I don’t even think I spoke of what had happened with anyone at the time; I just felt really low and wanted to forget all about it. I had been happy at the start of the day; as I said, I loved beauty products and this was something that made me feel good, and for the day to end the way it did.
Over the years I met many wonderful people behind these make-up counters who DID know what they were doing and DID want to help me…all I had to do was ask. There were some that didn’t have a clue but they said so and pointed me in the right direction to someone who did. It did take a little time to build up the confidence to approach the counters again and ask for help but I did it.
I did get through it and you will too. It was not a nice experience but it made me more stronger, more determined that I WAS going to get out there, ask for help regarding covering my scars, and be who I wanted to be and you CAN too.
I just want to add something in here; on this page, I am talking from a teenager’s point of view. Over the years, I have built up the confidence to go out without my “full” make-up on. If you want to find out more; please click on the link below:
SUN TAN/FAKE TAN TO EVEN OUT YOUR SKIN TONES
I know I was a teenager a long time ago but I hope that by sharing my experiences with you, it will help in some way.
Stay strong and we’ll chat soon.