Who is BeautyMarked iLLy?

Hey Friends! Welcome back to my blog. So my first blog was introducing my blog and what I have in store for you. However, I want to share with you why I started BeautyMarked iLLy. Why the name? Well besides from the obvious reason of having a beauty mark on my face, the name goes way deeper than that. Are you ready???

When I was younger I absolutely hated my beauty mark. It is not a birthmark. I wasn’t born with it, it just came with age. You may call it a mole, but I call it a beauty mark for many reasons that I will get to.

Okay, so back to the story.

So like I said, I wasn’t born with it, so imagine a little third grader seeing something on her face appear and she can’t do anything about it but just watch it get bigger. You guys know, how kids can be brutal, well my classmates and kids on my block did not hold back. See I grew up in Harlem where we would just “cut ass”. For those who don’t know what that means, just imagine getting joked on but times 100. Nothing was held back. I have tough skin, but imagine constantly getting joked on for something you have not control of and is part of your appearance. I was told I have a roach on my face, and it didn’t help that Austin Power’s movie came out around that time. Do you guys remember that part in the movie when someone pointed at a mole and said “MOLEY, MOLEY, MOLEY”. Well, I had classmates and even strangers, mostly young boys, come up to my face, point at my beauty mark and proceed with the Austin Power line. Some days I came home crying. I remember trying to cover it with my mother’s makeup. I grew to hate my beauty mark. Then one day, while my mother was talking to my after-school teacher about the teasing I was dealing with, someone else’s mother came up to me and said “They make fun of it now but wait until you get older. They are going to love it!” She was right!

To make a long story short (it maybe too late for that), I learned to love my beauty mark. I realized that I love it when it was school picture day and the photographer made it his business to edit my photo and remove my beauty mark! I did not look like myself. I saw a whole different person when I saw the edited photo. I almost cried. That’s when I knew my beauty mark is part of me. Then I realize there are women such as Marilyn Monroe and Lil Kim that actually have fake beauty marks on their face exactly where mine is. Women where even getting it pierced! I fell deeper in love with it.

So one day while on Instagram, I changed my name to BeautyMarked Illy, because I took something I hated, learned to appreciate it and make it my brand. My brand has been exactly that. Acceptance. I hated my curly hair to a point I fried it trying to keep it straight. I showcased my natural hair journey and learned to love and accept my curly hair. Same with my body. I always been insecure about my body but I learned to accept it and I’m falling deeper in love with it every day. So when people ask me to change my Instagram name so it can be a bit more “professional”. I say no. BeautyMarked iLLy is more than stating the obvious, of me having a beautymark, its my story of acceptance and self-love. It’s staying!

                                                             Love and Light,