Watch Woman With ‘Scaly’ Skin Shares Her Greatest Achievements!
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A woman who was born with a rare condition that causes dry and ‘scaly’ skin has become a beauty queen and a motivational speaker after being bullied as a kid for years.
31-year-old Bailey Pretak from Wilcox, Pennsylvania, has redefined beauty standards after winning the title of a beauty queen despite her unconventional appearance.
The woman, who suffers from a rare genetic disorder called lamellar ichthyosis, has also gotten her revenge on bullies as she became a motivational speaker and a role model for the youths.
Due to her condition that causes skin cells to separate at an abnormal rate, Bailey has to constantly apply moisturizer and exfoliate her skin.
“I look in the mirror and realize that maybe, this skin isn’t what I wanted – but it is who I am. 20 years ago, if you would have asked me to describe myself, I would have said ‘ugly,’” the woman said in an interview with Barcroft TV.
“I might have used ‘shy,’ even ‘worthless’ too. People would call me ‘scaly Bailey.’ I was bullied and always excluded. But now, I realize that I have a story to tell and so I decided to become a motivational speaker.”
While she achieved everything she ever wanted, Bailey admitted life hadn’t been easy because she had to deal with constant stares, bullying, and rude comments.
“I remember when I got to kindergarten, parents had called the principal and wanted their children to be removed from my class and warned them to not touch anything that I had,” she recalled.
“I could overhear people calling me ‘scaly Bailey.’ I just didn’t fit in anywhere, I almost felt like I had to wear a mask to cover up who I really was.
“Even to this day, I get constant stares and rude comments like ‘did your mother ever teach you about using sunscreen?’
“But either way, I do have the confidence in myself now. It has developed over the course of many years and it wasn’t an overnight transition.”
Besides becoming a motivational speaker, the 31-year-old also decided to redefine beauty standards by competing in a pageant back in 2014 and winning the title of Miss Pennsylvania Sweet Heart.
“I always felt like I had no place in that world because I wasn’t the typical beauty pageant. But I finally decided you know what, I am tired of letting other people dictate how I should live or what beauty should look like,” Bailey explained.
“So I entered and I actually won Miss Pennsylvania Sweet Heart and was invited to compete at the nationals.”
As for her plans for the future, Bailey doesn’t intend on slowing down at all. She aims to continue to encourage people to accept who they are and live to the best of their abilities.
“And now, if a doctor would call me up and say Bailey, ‘great news, we’ve found a cure and we want you to be on the front line to take it, do you want to?’ I would honestly say no,” the 31-year-old said.
“That would surprise a lot of people, but my skin by no means defines who I am. It’s helped to make me who I am, it has shaped me.”
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