When it comes to our appearance, we all have insecurities. May it be the birth mark on your cheek, or the hereditary nose that dates further back than anyone could imagine, there are features about our bodies that can sometimes cause us pain and embarrassment.
For Jessica McDaniels, it’s always been her teeth.
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Ever since she was a child, she’s been teased, laughed at and made fun of for her mouthful of crooked teeth. It affected her ability to speak clearly and made it difficult for others to understand her.
Jessica never imagined the bullying would get worse with age.
The worst happened on a day when one of Jessica’s friends got engaged. The hairstylist was there to witness the proposal, and stood around with others snapping pictures.
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Another witness captured a photo with Jessica in it. But rather than posting it for the joy of a proposal, the stranger zoomed up and cropped Jessica’s face. The cruel meme went viral online and led to more teasing, bullying and downright evil than Jessica has ever experienced in her life.
“I didn’t care about them talking about me—I just wanted to protect my kids,” she said.
As the cruel meme made its way around the Internet, an old friend of Jessica’s from high school caught a glimpse of it.
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Krystal Starks had known much about Jessica’s story—multiple hearing surgeries as a child, not growing adult teeth until the age of 12, and the relentless bullying she’s endured.
Though they’d lost touch 14 years ago after high school, Krystal couldn’t just watch her old friend continue to be taunted by horrible people.
“For a person doing something innocent, for them to be caught off-guard and taken advantage of like this is horrible,” Krystal said. And, “For what? For likes on Facebook?”
In an effort to help Jessica get her smile fixed, Krystal launched a GoFundMe campaign with a goal of $10,000 to pay for surgery.
Meanwhile, as donations came flooding in, Dr. Maryann Udy, an oral surgeon who’d learned about Jessica’s story, contacted her and offered to fix her smile for free.
Overwhelmed by the outpouring of support and generosity, Jessica went in to have her first procedure of many with Dr. Udy on July 11.
After just two hours, the results are INCREDIBLE.
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Jesica endured decades of unspeakable cruelty and bullying that nobody should ever have to face.
Her transformation is well-deserved, and we hope she’s encouraged by those who stepped up and supported her when others failed to do so.
Jessica hopes to use her experience to make change, by launching a nonprofit for others with stories like hers.
