Girl Is Mocked by Kids & Labeled 'Cursed' for Her Appearance — It Later Brings Her Fame

• Christelle Mengue is an albino model who was bullied for her skin.
• She was born in Cameroon but had to move to Paris because she was believed to be "cursed."
• She became a model and started to promote diversity and self-acceptance.

A 29-year-old woman named Christelle Mengue opened up about the torture and rejection she endured due to her albinism.

She tried her best to fit in and even lied about her identity, but she realized she needed to be better educated on her condition. So learning about it brought her self-acceptance.

And while Mengue's skin was initially a weapon people used against her, it soon became her most prized asset after she embarked on a self-love journey. This eventually led her to become a successful model.

The Brutal Bullying Christelle Mengue Experienced

Mengue was born in Cameroon, and out of her six brothers, she is the only one with albinism. And while her family loved her for who she is, the rest of the community did not accept her. She even said medics called her disabled.

Her condition was labeled a "curse," and the bullying got so bad her parents sought safety in Paris when she was five.

Unfortunately, moving to Paris did not necessarily make things better. She grew up in a white neighborhood but was never accepted. To add insult to injury, she was also rejected within her community of black people.

All of it did not make sense to young Mengue. She expressed, "When I was younger, I knew I was different, but I had no idea why — even when I grew up in a white community in France, I did not feel accepted."

School was not the most joyful place for Mengue because she was tormented due to her skin, with kids calling her "weird, ugly, or a ghost."

Tragically, things only got worse when she became a teenager. Mengue witnessed her friends get through puberty and get boyfriends while she was sidelined.

She tried to musk her skin by dying her hair darker and using darker makeup, hoping people would see her as a mixed-race girl.

Nevertheless, after years of trying to transform and fit different molds to be accepted, Mengue's journey to self-acceptance started.

Mengue's Life-Changing Opportunity

Eventually, the cover-up started to become tiring for Mengue. Even though she suffered from low self-esteem and confidence, she was over-damaging her hair and using makeup that did not match her skin.

During this time of her transition, Mengue was 19 years old and scouted by a French modeling agency which changed her perspective on albinism completely.

She realized that she had never seen people who looked like her on television or in magazines. Still, most importantly, she recognized how much she had let people define her without understanding her condition.

So, the model took it upon herself to do her research on albinism and learned that it was not a disability but a lack of pigmentation. She had a perfectly functioning brain like anyone else.

When she did her first photoshoot, she got to really appreciate her skin. Mengue said, "I looked back at the photos and realized I did not look that bad in photos and began to embrace my skin."

Ten years later, Mengue is a successful model at Models of Diversity — an agency all about representing diverse models — and features in their latest calendar.

She hopes her courage will bring other people out of their shells. "I am sharing my story to promote diversity — I hope other people see the calendar and realize anything is possible," the model explained.

Mengue had a journey full of ups and downs, but with every fall came a lesson that brought her closer to freely and lovingly embracing who she was.

Here's a story about another girl who was bullied and defied the odds.