Finding the Confidence to Be “Different”—at Any Age

When I was 3 years old, I got burned with scalding water and I have scar tissue on my face, neck and left arm. Growing up with all that was very hard, I dealt with teasing and plenty of Freddy Krueger jokes. The more teasing, the more I wanted to hide. As I got older, I tried everything to make my scars look better, I even had 8 rounds of plastic surgery.

While the scars on the outside did get better, inside I still felt ugly and different. The urge to cover up when I catch people staring at me has been hard to beat. Reading “Jo Dares to Be Different” pushed buttons in me that needed to be pushed—so much so that I took the invitation to “Come as You REALLY are” to heart and wore a tank top to dinner and didn’t do a single thing to hide my scars.

The uncomfortable looks were there. But unlike other times, I just smiled and carried on. And surprisingly, people smiled back. It has been two weeks since I read the book and I have been wearing tank tops ever since. I highly recommend this book to anyone who feels insecure and needs to be dared to OWN IT!