Girl who was Bullied in School for Eczema Wins Beauty Pageant

A girl, who was bullied by peers in school due to her severe eczema on her face, got back at her tormentors by winning a beauty pageant.

Shelley-Marie Sumner, 23, from Walsall, West Midlands was subjected to taunts like "snake skin" almost every day throughout her school life. The severe skin condition had affected her face as well as body and even after it was cured, Sumner was left under-confident and she had even considered self-harm.

But, the local dance teacher's boyfriend Dean convinced he that she is in fact beautiful and gradually after gaining back her confidence, she participated in this year's Miss Black Country beauty pageant. She won the pageant, proving those who bullied her in school wrong and is now confident of her looks.

Sumner, who went on to compete in the Miss England pageant, said: "I was picked on every day at school because of my eczema and it shattered my confidence. I never dreamed I would have the courage to enter a beauty pageant, let alone win, but I've finally shown the bullies that their words won't hold me back any more," Mirror reports.

Sumner was born with the condition and even though the doctors had told her mother that she would eventually grow out of it, the condition only got worse.

She added that in primary school it wasn't that bad, but in high school the bullying got worse. "People would try and get away from me like I was contagious. We had to wear long-sleeved shirts so during the summer, I was always going to see the school nurse to put my eczema cream on and cool down," Metro reports.

"I sometimes got prank calls where the bullies would just laugh and hang up on me. I was tiny too, so they called me 'Anorexic Annie'. As a child you can't forget the name-calling. I never had a lot of friends. At my lowest point I was seeing the school counsellor and I started thinking about self-harm. I had serious trust issues," she says.

Sumner is now working for a charity and has already raised $ 1088.75 for a local children's charity and is now the ambassador for her local area.