This brave young woman who suffered 88 percent burns to her body as well as an arm amputation when she was a baby has become an athlete and model all the while never hiding her disfigured face.
Brisa Belen del Milagro Tejerin, 21, said she had to learn to deal with people’s reactions to her appearance by staring back until they stopped staring at her.
The young woman, who suffered burns to 88 percent of her body in a house blaze when she was just seven months old, said proudly: “I look in the mirror and I like myself.”
She suffered horrific burns to her head and arms in the fire, and one arm even had to be amputated due to the damage caused.
Brisa, from the Argentine city of Salta, told the website of Garrahan Hospital, based in the capital Buenos Aires and where doctors helped save her life, that “no one is more or less than the other, we are all equal”.
She said she is grateful to the hospital and often visits doctors to give updates on her story.
She won several medals as a runner at the Evita National Games for children and young adults when she was 21 years old. The contest started in 1948 offers “solidarity and respect through sport, both in individual and team sports”.
Last year, she was offered the chance to model after a photo of her went viral on social media and she was asked to take part in the Miss Belleza Mundial pageant, winning three awards including the Strongest Woman prize.
Additionally, she was offered a contract by a modelling agency in Salta to continue her dream of dedicating herself to the profession.
She said she knows many people who suffered serious fires who try to hide their burns injuries, but she does not want to.
Brisa added that she has had to overcome the strange looks she used to receive from strangers in the street, adding: “I stare back until they stop staring.
“No one is more or less than the other, we are all equal.”
Brisa said it is her ambition to become a PE teacher and specialise in working with children with disabilities: “I learned to defend what is mine, but not everyone has the same possibility. So I want to help in some way.”
