Charlie has a capillary hemangioma, which is a jot down of vascular tumor, on her right cheek.
Yet, strangers and acquaintances alike focus on the mark.
“We see past the color of her face,“she writes.
“Charlie is Charlie and its part of who she is.
It doesnt need to be constantly commented on, critiqued, or questioned.
Its a part of her unique beauty.
Courtesy of Katie Crenshaw
It may never disappear, and guess what?
It doesnt have to.”
She tells SELF that she was disappointed at how much people fixated on Charlie’s birthmark.
Courtesy of Katie Crenshaw
“We (her parents) had moved on and just wanted to talk about normal baby things.
I realized that it was because people were pitying something that just made her unique.
People were praying away one of her precious characteristics.”
Courtesy of Katie Crenshaw
It’s unclear what causes them, and most of them willdisappear on their ownas a child gets older.
“Hold the pity,” Crenshaw writes.
“Shes a healthy baby girl and we are blessed.
Courtesy of Katie Crenshaw
Her hemangioma is just as insignificant to who she is as a freckle on her arm.
You dont need to mention it, and you dont need to wish it away.”
“I had no idea this would reach so many,” Crenshaw says.
I am extraordinarily moved by the lives our story has touched.”
Read Crenshaw’s fullblog post here.
