Yulianna Yussef's giant birthmark was never an issue when she was a little girl. She played with her friends and spent time with her family, just like every other little girl in her town of Warsaw in Poland.
However, everything changed when she turned eight, and people began pointing and staring at her because of her birthmark.
In fact, some parents wouldn't let their children play with her, because they didn't understand the birthmark known as Congenital Melanocytic Naevus (CMN) which covers most of her back and stretches around to her stomach, as well as having smaller marks all over her body.
"I was quite a happy and carefree child. Before I was eight-years-old, I didn't pay much attention to my birthmarks," Yulianna told the Mirror.
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"I remember myself looking at my skin in the mirror pretty much without any particular emotions.
"But after eight I started to notice all these eyes on me and fingers that were point on my legs, and words that people liked to say. In three words - I was bullied.
"It wasn't only comments, parents of another children didn't let me to play with their kids because they thought that I was contagious."
But things got worse for Yullianna as she got older, after years of teasing meant she only wanted to leave her home when it was dark.
"When I was 14 or 15 years old, I went with my friend to the beach, and of course people looked at me.
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"Some old woman come to me with her advice on how to remove my "warts", some waitresses in the cafe said unkind words to me. Lots of things like this happened that morning.
"My friend said to me 'oh my God, Julie! Walking with you just like walking with a monkey.'
"I know it was just words and in some ways it was a joke.
"I wasn't angry at her, but after this I began to just sit at home all summer and walked for one or two hours in the evenings when it was dark.
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"I would just ask 'why me?', 'why do I deserve this?' and thought that nobody would ever love girl with a black and hairy back.
"I was thinking that boys would never pick up me because they have choice to pick up a 'normal' girl with perfect skin.
"I was a dalmatian, a giraffe, a cow, I was dirty, people thought that if they spoke to me my birthmarks would jump at them."
But as she got older, Yulianna decided she wasn't going to take anymore criticism as she decided it was time to start loving herself.
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"I was so tired of hiding and being afraid of people, of their reactions and actions.
"I was hating myself for the weakness and that I felt so much pity towards myself.
"I then understood that nobody would help me just myself, to bring me up with my confidence.
"The first thing I thought when I started analyse the reactions is that maybe 85 per cent people really didn't know what it is.
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"So in some point they were afraid of it. And then I understood that if they all knew maybe my life and lives of the other kids and adults with CMN would be much easier."
Featured Image Credit: Instagram/Yulianna Yussef