This is such a shame, and im sure she has a hard time of it, but she is only 13 inside as well as outside, and i hope she makes the most of it. But i do feel for her where the children at her school are concerned, I was born with club foot, and as a child was called things like plastic spastic, and some very hurtful things, some of the older kids even thought it was good fun to throw stones at my crippled feet to see if it hurt me, and laughed in the process of watching me dance to get out the way of the stoned.

My point is, Its about educations, and i feel children are not exposed to such conditions enough, or they are simply taboo in the "normal home or school" and they dont understand, most kids or her age have empathy, and it would be of much help if the adults around them would go out of their way from time to time to explain such debilitating conditions, maybe then we would have a little more understanding of such things and people would't suffer as much as they do.

I wish her all the best and hope she can become a part time teacher as she wished, she is probably a very bright girl with a lot of potential, but this condition will hold her back, as i have found in my own life, people just dont understand.

thanks for sharing this OP, good to see some people care,

Somebody watched Good Morning America or The Today Show...lol I dont remember what it was on but my friend and I saw this yesterday morning. Her mother was also born with it since it is hereditary. I dont think I could have a kid knowing they would be born with this. I feel bad for her, she wont have a normal life ever. She is always going to have people question her and that has got to be hard on her.

Man that is sad. I have 2 great kids myself and this makes me remember a kid I knew in school. His name was Mickey and he had "Progeria" which instead of making you "appear older" it actually makes you older inside and out. Average lifespan is only 13 years. He aged incredibly fast and died at 15 of "old age". I think only about 100 cases have ever been diagnosed.

Very sad. Mainly because our society places so much emphasis on youth and beauty.

There were TWO girls in my high school that had something like that (don't know exactly what it was but it caused them to prematurely age very badly). This thread just made me look up my high school year book. I found one of their photos but the other one must not have had her photo done.

They both had very loose facial skin and one had a full face of wrinkles by the time we were juniors. I remember hearing the other girls laughing at her and telling her to buy some face cream.

I'm sure this girl has to go through the same things. Very sad.

dam she prolly hits up the liquor store for all her friends

i meant that as a positive not a negative, i mean