After enduring childhood taunts for being “ugly” and cruelly nicknamed “bulldog” by classmates for having a flat nose, Fleur Wickes grew into a teenager who would hide her face when talking to boys.
Born with a full cleft lip and palate – and needing numerous operations to reconstruct her nose and lips – she quietly took on her own brutal self-critique.
But at 20, Fleur didn’t want to do that any more and made a decision to look in the mirror every day for a year and tell herself she was beautiful.
“It actually worked!” says the Whanganui-based artist, whose emotive word paintings stem from finding beauty in the dark places.
“One man I dated told me, ‘You’d look really pretty if you didn’t have scars. Have you thought about having surgery for them?’ In that moment, I knew all the work I had done in the mirror had helped because I was able to reply, ‘No, I actually like them.’ I realised how far I had come.
“Everyone has something to deal with, but a lot of the time it’s hidden. I didn’t have that option.”
Growing up as the youngest of six kids, with parents who ran the local pub at UÌ„pokongaro, outside of Whanganui, Fleur credits her fiercely-protective mum Colleen with teaching her to stand up for herself.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة February 22, 2021 من New Zealand Woman's Weekly.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
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هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة February 22, 2021 من New Zealand Woman's Weekly.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
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