

Marimar Quiroa loves going to the movies with her siblings, doing Sudoku, and trying new beauty products. In many ways she’s your typical 21-year-old, except she was born with a cystic hygroma, which caused her to develop a large facial tumor that prevents her from speaking, according to Fox News.

Some people with Quiroa’s condition might shy away from the spotlight, but the young California native is proudly thrusting herself into it. Two years ago she launched a video blog on YouTube, where she offers makeup tutorials and does Q&As, using sign language and closed captioning to communicate with the audience. Sometimes she even sets her videos to music. Her goal is to buck traditional beauty standards and empower her viewers to feel confident in their skin and love themselves, according to the Daily Mail.

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Already a fan of beauty and fashion, Quiroa decided to launch her channel while in high school. “I started to watch famous people that do video[s] on YouTube,” she communicates on her vlog (while rocking a perfect brow). “So an idea popped [into] my head that I have not seen yet: People that do makeup but in Sign Language. So I decided to do it.” Quiroa counts her mother as her main cheerleader — as well as her best friend — encouraging her to run with the idea.

And Quiroa’s mission is clearly resonating: Her vlog now has more than 111,000 subscribers and about 5 million views, according to the Daily Mail, with fans leaving compliments about everything from her sassy attitude to her “perfect” hair. About her hair: It’s long, thick, shiny, and pretty amazing, truth be told — and in a video that’s racked up more than a million views, she says she uses only basic shampoo and conditioner to keep it so healthy!

But Quiroa wasn’t always so confident and gregarious. The tumor, which affects her mouth and face, caused her to struggle to accept her appearance when she was younger, according to the Daily Mail. In addition to robbing her of her speech, the condition makes it necessary for her to breathe through a hole in her throat and eat through a tube in her stomach, and the hearing in her right ear is diminished.

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Time, self-talk, and surgeries to shrink the tumor have helped a lot. “Before, my face and head were bigger and I went through the process of many surgeries over several years to shrink my face and mouth to what you see today,” she told the publication, adding, “When I was younger I would talk to myself in the mirror. I would tell myself I was beautiful. I would encourage myself and list all the things that were good about me and it built my confidence through the years.”

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It’s easy to see why Quiroa is so inspirational to so many people, and it’s not just because of her condition. In addition to providing beauty info, her videos offer personal glimpses into her life, follow her on meet-and-greets with fans, and even sometimes get completely silly — like when she enlists her little brother to do her makeup for her (“This is for your skin, right?” he asks, picking up a random item from her makeup table).

While Quiroa has a solid, adoring fan base, it would be naive to think she doesn’t also have her fair share of naysayers. But she can handle it. “When people say negative things to me I either tell them to stop or just ignore them,” she tells the Daily Mail. “But if people are staring at me, I stare right back and refuse to look away until they stop.”

It’s clear she’s got a lot of fortitude, and nothing’s going to stop her from reaching her goals — which extend beyond beauty, by the way. In a video Q&A, Quiroa says she’s studying to be a teacher’s aide for elementary school children who can’t hear, but eventually she might want to study photography, fashion, and film.

But for now, she’s embracing the fact that her beauty-vlogging career is taking off. “What I like about makeup and beauty is imagining new looks, especially around the eyes,” she tells Fox News, “and showing people they’re beautiful no matter what.”

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