Fighting the stigma of facial difference

These are unprecedented times with the majority of countries around the world still in the midst of some form of lockdown. It is hard not to think of those who have been directly affected. Some have lost loved ones while those on the front line are effectively sacrificing themselves for the sake of others. Mental health, which even today still has a stigma attached to it, has rightly come to the forefront of people's minds and it is only positive that groups dedicated to this subject are continuing to spring up.

Another stigma, which I can write about from personal experience, is towards those born with facial differences. As with mental health though, we are moving forward in society with this as well. When I was born in the early 1980s with severe craniofacial anomalies (craniosynostosis, a bilateral cleft lip/palate, hypertelorism, among other issues), such support groups...