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Lulu was born with a condition called albinism - a disease that causes people to be born without pigment in their bodies. The condition caused her body to have a lack of melanin, which made her hair and skin white. She also had purple eyes.
Albinism made Lulu look different than everyone else, and as she was growing up, other kids began to notice. They started picking on her and making fun of her. They would call her a witch, a ghost, and even a vampire, and their negative comments didn't make Lulu feel included. As she got older, their words turned physical, and she even ended up in the hospital.
As all of this continued, Lulu's mom thought that a melanin transfer might be the solution to the problem. They hoped that if they could make Lulu look more like the other kids around her, then she wouldn't stick out as much and be such a target. However, all it did was make her hair a little more grey. Then, they decided to dye Lulu's hair and skin color, which actually did make a difference and helped her look like a "regular" kid.
Lulu started a new school so that no one would know what she looked like, and because she looked more like everyone else, she was able to blend in with the crowd and avoid being picked on. Everything seemed to be looking up!
However, once she got to high school, one of Lulu's classmates was from her old middle school and knew that she was secretly an albino. She had a pool party for her birthday and invited Lulu. Lulu decided to go, but she had to stay out of the pool to avoid exposing her true identity. If she went swimming with the rest of the kids, her makeup, foundation and hair dye would come off in the water, and everyone would know she was an albino.
As she sat on the side of the pool, she heard giggling behind her. She turned around and confronted the group of giggling girls, and they responded in the meanest way possible - they pushed Lulu into the pool. All of her foundation started to come off of her body and, worst of all, she didn't know how to swim. She felt scared and helpless and she began to sink into the water. Once everyone realized that the joke had gone south and that Lulu was drowning, they called an ambulance to save her.
She woke up in the hospital and was so upset when her mom told her what happened. She couldn't believe that a group of girls who she thought were her friends would do something so cruel, mean and harmful.
After a while, Lulu stopped wearing makeup to school. Since people already knew she was an albino, there wasn't much use in hiding the truth. One day, as she was at a store with her friend, she ran into some kids from school. Afraid of how they would treat her, she and her friend left the store. But, before they could get home safely, the group of kids blocked them and corned them in an alley. They even pulled out weapons on them. Feeling scared and defenseless, Lulu just ran away.
A few years later, Lulu moved back to her hometown in Norway - she was Norwegian. She went to a new school, and she was relieved when she was able to have her cousin - another albino person - right by her side. Lulu was known as ghost girl and her cousin was called vampire - but this time, their nicknames were actually all in good fun. They were accepted by their peers and, for the first time, Lulu felt comfortable in her own skin - she was finally accepted for being an albino.
If you have albinism, Lulu wants you to know that you are not alone! If you're Norweigan, well, not alone there either.
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