Student Cruelly Branded ‘Dalmatian’ And ‘Alien’ Due To 500 Birthmarks All Over Her Skin Defies Bullies To Become A Model

A student cruelly called 'Dalmatian' and 'Alien' due to having over 500 birthmarks on her skin have defied bullies by becoming a model.

Alba Parejo, 16, from Barceonla, Spain has congenital melanocytic nevus a condition that means her entire body is covered in moles and large patches of darkened hairy skin.

While growing up, she felt like a 'monster' and was brutally bullied for having skin like a 'Dalmatian' or 'an alien', but last year, after choosing to embrace her birthmarks and post pictures of her skin online she received nearly 1,000 retweets and 1,500 likes.

The positive response gave her the courage to enter a competition to become the public face of an empowerment campaign and now she is featured on billboards, buses and in newspapers.

Alba from Barcelona, Spain, said: 'I have a nevus on my hip, bottom, my thighs and more than 500 moles over my body.

Before the age of five, she underwent 30 surgeries to remove some of the affected areas before the trauma of treatment became too much.

'While growing up, I realized people were staring at me because of my skin, which made me feel bad, strangers looked at me as if I was a monster.

'Sometimes they laughed or said horrible comments like calling me a 'Dalmatian' or an 'Alien', one person even asked me if I painted myself.

Alba said: 'I realize now that my skin is beautiful, special and unique.

'I've been the face of Anec Blau's shopping center campaign and a model for artists' work.

'I feel much more body positive and am trying to make my disease more well known in order to help other people.'

Now she wants to help to liberate others with the condition that affects one in 20,000 through her modeling and show them they have no reason to hide.

Alba said: 'Since being more open about my condition I've spoken to people all over the world about the disease and tried to help them with their problems too.

'I love it when people tell me I have changed their life for the better, for that reason I want to keep showing myself.

'I want to make people accept that we are all different and we don't have perfect bodies.'