Dr Kiran Rahim
37, London
“As I grew older, I met other people with clefts and facial differences, and their confidence and beauty has rubbed off on me. I wear that with pride. I am a product of a million hugs, smiles, and wiped tears.”
As a girl, Kiran felt at home in hospitals. It was secondary school that made her squirm. She was constantly bullied, and it made her hate smiling. “I refused to wear lipstick or makeup because I felt so ugly and no amount of makeup could fix me,” she recalls.
As she grew up, she realised there is so much more to her than her cleft. Today, she loves wearing lippies and she loves smiling. Perhaps inspired by her love of hospitals, she is now a paediatrician — and social media influencer who spreads her motto of “be-YOU-ty” — the inner worth you feel when you embrace your most authentic you — around the world. Her smile is the thing she gets complimented on the most.
