- Gloria Aste, 20, has a skin condition called giant congenital melanocytic nevus
- But the content creator, from Colorado, confidently shows off her birthmark
- Gloria hopes to bring awareness and representation to other followers with CMN
A woman has proudly displayed her huge black birthmark stretching across her neck and torso in a bid to raise awareness.
Gloria Aste, from Loveland, Colorado, has a rare skin condition called giant congenital melanocytic nevus (CMN) – which people often mistake for a blackout tattoo.
The 20-year-old regularly receives hateful comments, but continues to flaunt her uniqueness online.
She said People: ‘My goal with social media is to simply make differences more mainstream, because they can be beautiful.’
Gloria Aste, from Loveland, Colorado, has a rare skin condition called giant congenital melanocytic nevus (CMN) – which people often mistake for a blackout tattoo
She told People: “My goal with social media is to mainstream differences because they can be beautiful.”
Gloria was born with the rare condition that occurs once in just 50,000 births, according to the National Organization for Rare Diseases (NORTH).
Giant CMNs are described as “benign, tumor-like malformations that result from defective development of pigment cell precursors in the embryo.”
The social media star explained that they are “not on your skin, they are on your skin.”
She candidly told the publication, “I grew up with people constantly asking me questions about my skin. In the past, the questions were more like ‘have you colored yourself?’
“But as I get older, most people assume it’s a blackout tattoo, which is actually quite common.”
She continued, “I wanted to be open about my birthmark on social media because what I have is quite rare and I grew up not seeing anyone who looked anything like me.
‘I want to make people aware of it and I’d like to see more people who have it embrace it.’
Gloria confessed that there are downsides to being so outspoken online, as she revealed that she often receives hateful and inappropriate comments.
The 20-year-old regularly receives hateful comments, but continues to flaunt her uniqueness online
Gloria recently took to TikTok, where she has more than 65,200 followers, to respond to one such comment that read: ‘Beautiful blackout tattoo’
But she concluded: “I think there’s just a lot of ignorance and lack of education that drives people to say these things to me.
“Honestly, the mean comments don’t bother me that much because I think it’s easy to hide behind a screen and say whatever you want without consequences.”
Gloria recently took to TikTok, where she has more than 65,200 followers, to respond to one such comment that read: “Nice blackout tattoo.”
She showed off her position in one cropped crochet knit top and jeans as she playfully posed for the camera.
The content creator added a sarcastic voiceover to the clip from the movie Precious, saying, “Since you got your degree and you know everything.”
Gloria captioned the clip, “Just an educational opportunity for people.”
And she was soon inundated with supportive comments.
One person opened up about her content, writing, “Girl I’m baffled every time someone asks me if mine is a blackout tattoo.”
Another person wrote: “So hot,” while another follower added: “You are beautiful.”
A fourth commenter added: ‘I know it’s not the same things but I have to say you’ve made me feel more confident with my skin graft.
‘I have to help heal a quarter of my body after a fire accident…scars and all. Thank you.’