- Gloria Aste, 20, suffers from a skin condition called giant congenital melanocytic nevus
- But the Colorado content creator confidently flaunts her birthmark
- Gloria hopes to use CMN to increase awareness and representation for other followers
A woman has proudly displayed her huge black birthmark that stretches across her neck and torso to attract attention.
Gloria Aste of Loveland, Colorado, suffers from a rare skin condition called giant congenital melanocytic nevus (CMN), which is often confused with a blackout tattoo.
The 20-year-old regularly receives hate comments but continues to showcase her unique feature online.
She told People: “My goal with social media is to just bring differences more into the mainstream because they can be beautiful.”
Gloria Aste of Loveland, Colorado, suffers from a rare skin condition called giant congenital melanocytic nevus (CMN), which is often confused with a blackout tattoo
She told People: “My goal with social media is to bring differences more into the mainstream because they can be beautiful.”
According to the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD), Gloria was born with the rare condition, which occurs only once in 50,000 births.
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, but on your skin.”
She told the publication candidly: “I grew up with people constantly asking me questions about my skin.” Before, the questions were more like, “Did you do your own coloring?”
“But as we get older, most people assume it's a blackout tattoo, which is actually pretty common.”
She continued: “I wanted to be open about my birthmark on social media because what I have is pretty rare and I grew up never seeing anyone who looked like me on anything.”
“I want to make people aware of it and would like to see more people who have it embrace it.”
Gloria admitted 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 hate comments but continues to showcase her unique feature online
Gloria recently took to TikTok, where she has more than 65,200 followers, to respond to one such comment that read: “Nice blackout tattoo.”
But she concluded: “I think it's just a lot of ignorance and lack of education that makes people say things like that to me.”
“Honestly, I don't really mind the meaner comments 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 flaunted her looks in a 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 graduated and know everything.”
Gloria captioned the clip: “Just an educational opportunity for people.”
And she was quickly flooded with supportive comments.
Referencing her content, one person wrote, “Girl I'm amazed every time someone asks me if my tattoo is a blackout tattoo.”
Another person wrote: “So hot,” while another follower added: “You're beautiful.”
A fourth commenter added: “I know it's not the same but I have to say you made me feel more confident about my skin transplant.”
“I got to help heal a quarter of my body after a fire accident…scars and all. 'Thank you very much.'