VIDEO: She Hasn’t Seen Her Face Without Make-up in Years. The Reason Why She Hides It Is Really Sad

There are a lot of reasons why women wear make up and the main one is that they want to feel beautiful and like they have no flaws.

While some might be hiding tiny flaws like dark circles around their eyes or pimples or redness, there are some that think they have to hide their whole face.

This is the story of Mariah who wears a full face of make up every day, like a mask, because she doesn’t want people to see her and judge her for being different.

She has Vitiligo that has spread all over her face and this makes her think she’s not beautiful.

According to mirror.co.uk, Mariah was just 11 when she noticed a small white spot on her finger.

At first, she didn’t think much of it. She showed her mum, who told her not to worry about it.

But within a few months, further white spots began to appear in new places: a few patches on her arm, one beneath her nose, and then the skin at the corners of her eyes lost its natural color and went pale.

“When it appeared on my face, my mum took me straight to the doctor,” remembers Mariah, now 19. “He didn’t seem too concerned, but mum pushed for me to see a dermatologist.

“It was then I was told I had vitiligo, a condition that causes my skin to lose pigmentation. To begin with, I was just relieved to have a diagnosis, but the more I found out about it, the more I began to worry.”

Doctors don’t know exactly what causes vitiligo, a condition that affects approximately 50 million people worldwide, but it’s thought to be an autoimmune disease, where the body attacks its own melanin cells (which give skin its colour) – and it can be triggered by stress.

Although it’s not life-threatening, it can have a big impact on the mental well being of sufferers, and Mariah felt a huge loss of self-confidence.

Over time, the white patches began to grow larger, merging together to form big areas of pale skin. Most of Mariah’s face and hands are now white, and there are patches on her arms, hips and stomach.

Because the process was gradual, it wasn’t until Mariah saw pictures of herself that she realised how much the vitiligo had spread.

In order to hide some of the pale patches, she turned to make-up, teaching herself to apply layer upon layer of heavy foundation.

“I’d spend about 45 minutes applying my make-up, making sure every bit of my face was covered and trying to make it look as natural as possible,” says Mariah.

At 13, Mariah was the only person in her class wearing make-up, and she felt uneasy about looking unnaturally made-up, but she couldn’t bear the stares and questions when she left the house without it.

Her skin also made her feel insecure when it came to boys.

Mariah threw herself into her studies at school in Baltimore, where she lives, and the straight-A student secured a place at university to study Sociology & Criminal Justice.

Her family worried about how she would cope in a different environment, having to explain to a new set of people about her skin. But Mariah believes starting university was actually the best thing she has done.