A burns survivor and make-up artist has revealed how the cruel taunts of bullies nearly drove her to suicide. In an emotional video, 20-year-old Shalom Blac said daily bullying after she was burned with hot oil in Nigeria as a nine-year-old led her to contemplate ending her life. But now the influential beauty YouTube blogger, who lives in America, feels she has found her ‘calling’ and that she has no regrets about what happened, she told Cosmopolitan.com. Shalom endured years of misery after she was burned at her mother’s restaurant – losing her hair and burning her shoulders, chest and face.
After four months in hospital she was bullied by children who she said called her names like ‘monster’, ‘two-face’ and ‘scarface’. When she moved to America she hoped it would be different but was forced to endure staring and further bullying. She said in the video, in which she slowly removes her make-up as she talks: ‘Eventually I came to America thinking it was going to be better but the bullying just continued, to the point that I actually wanted to commit suicide. ‘I remember one day just taking a knife and going into the bathroom and looking at myself and wondering why people just don’t like me and why they see a monster.
‘I just couldn’t imagine living my whole life being bullied every day, even just going out people just staring at me and just wondering “what the hell is wrong with her face?”‘ But she managed to find a way out of her despair by ‘working on myself’ and trying to see her own beauty. Such was the turn-around that now Shalom said that even if she had the chance to reverse what happened, she would not do it. She said she started ‘actually paying attention to myself in the mirror’ and finding the belief that she was ‘beautiful, from the inside’. Through her make-up tutorial videos on her YouTube channel, which has over 100,000 subscribers and over six million views, she hopes to inspire other people. Shalom said: ‘At this point in my life I don’t regret what happened to me. I feel like this was my calling. If I had a choice, to take it back, I definitely wouldn’t because it’s helping other people. ‘I’m just glad that my story can actually inspire someone enough for them to realize their life is worth living.’
Source: DAILY MAIL
Photo Credit: COSMOPOLITAN
