Every day, when we look at others, it almost always seems to be about their looks. We form opinions of them BECAUSE of their looks. And sometimes, if we don’t like the way they look, we treat them differently. But one young girl believes looking different can be beautiful.
Destiny Strickland is 11 years old, and she was born with a medical condition called amniotic band syndrome. It caused significant birth defects. So when Destiny is out and about, she gets a lot of stares from people, and a lot of hateful comments.
Her grandmother, Lisa Brown, has always wanted to protect her from that. Says Lisa: “The reactions I got from some people, even adults, it broke my heart. If I could have just taken her to an island and kept her away from all of that, I would have.”
But now, Destiny doesn’t want to run and hide. She wants to stand her ground and show others that being different can be a really nice thing. Before Destiny’s first day in school, her teacher spoke about her condition to Destiny’s classmates. And when she showed up, they all treated her great respect, and even wrote her notes to tell her they wanted to be her friend. Destiny now even runs a YouTube channel and website called “Different is Beautiful.”
When she first came onto the channel and website, she introduced herself, saying, “Hi, I’m Destiny. I’m 10 years old in the fourth grade and I was born different. I love my family and most importantly, I love myself.”
Aside from telling her own story, the website and channel reaches out to others who may feel a little different from everyone else.
Destiny’s grandmother hopes the young girl’s actions will teach many children to be kind to those who are different. Because when you think about it, we’re all really very different. And that’s a good thing.
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