I was born without the ability to blink… I faced years of incessant bullying over the condition

A woman who was born without the ability to blink has laid bare the incessant bullying she faced for years over the condition.

Sabrina Burlando, 19, from Surprise, Arizonawas born without the muscle that allows her to close her eyelid – a genetic condition known as congenital ptosis, which she inherited from her dad.

While she had the function restored through surgery at age three – after doctors gave her the ability to blink but through her eyebrow muscle instead – what came next was years of uncomfortable stares from strangers and cruel comments from her peers, which left her fiercely insecure.

Burlando explained during an exclusive chat with the Daily Mail that despite her eyes working completely normal following the surgery, they still ‘appeared smaller than average,’ which led to her being picked on from a young age.

‘I first realized I was different from others in kindergarten. That’s the first time I remember getting made fun of for my eyes,’ she explained.

‘None of my classmates understood why my eyes are smaller, and they picked on me for it.

‘I remember my teacher had to give my entire class a talk about how there’s nothing wrong with me, and they shouldn’t comment on my eyes. That was the moment I realized that I looked different from my peers.’

It got even worse during her teenage years. And when she landed her first job in high school she said she faced bullying at her workplace.

‘My manager and co-worker made inappropriate comments about my eyes behind my back,’ she shared.

It completely shattered her confidence and left her constantly feeling like she wasn’t ‘good enough.’

‘I felt so unusual and alone,’ she said. ‘I began to feel scared at the thought of meeting new people.

‘I had a fear that when strangers looked at me, all they saw was my eyes, and nothing else about me as a person.

‘(Plus), social media beauty standards made it impossible to feel like I was good enough.

‘Picture-perfect girls who are the highlight of beauty distorted the way I viewed myself.

‘I craved to be the type of pretty I was exposed to online. I didn’t want to be unique.’

But eventually, Burlando learned to not only accept her differences, but to embrace them.

‘The thing that helped me most with my confidence and sense of self was realizing that there is so much to a person than the way they look,’ she shared.

‘I realized that the only opinion that mattered regarding the way that I look was my own.

‘I can’t control the way that I look, but I can control the type of person I am. And to me, that is far important.

‘Confidence is still a struggle for me, but I realized that if I were born with two fully functioning eyes, I wouldn’t be who I am.’

She now believes that the condition ‘taught her kindness in a way she never would have understood without it.’

And it was that realization that helped her accept that being unique is ‘something to be celebrated.’

According to the National Library of Medicineonly 107 children were diagnosed with ptosis from January 1965 through December 2004.

Burlando recently started posting about her condition on

She believes that the condition ‘taught her kindness in a way she never would have understood without it.’ And that helped her accept that being unique is ‘something to be celebrated’