Laudiane Fernandes, who works as a beauty technician in Alagoas, Brazil, has an unusually huge nose. It wasn't something she was born with - an infection from her surgery caused her to need a facial reconstruction that turned her nose huge. She lives confidently with it, but she'd often hear negative comments from people who call her Pinocchio.

Laudiane Fernandes was born with a condition called haemangiomas that goes undiagnosed until she was much older.

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Haemangioma is a condition where blood vessels form into a small clump under the skin. They can be found anywhere, and the face is one of the most common areas. Laudiane found out she has this at the age of 16.

After the diagnosis, she underwent eight surgeries, and one of them was to remove the vessels by cutting through the nose skin and reshaping it.

It was unfortunate for her because an infection occurred after the surgery.

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Before the surgery, Laudiane, as a kid, had to experience many severe nosebleeds and even went into seizures.

The infection forced Laudiane back to the hospital to go through another surgery - this time, it's a reconstruction surgery where the doctors graft her cheek's skin on the nose.

That naturally meant her nose would end up looking bigger, but there was a more pressing matter at hand than worrying about her nose size.

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She shared, "After five hours, the process was complete and although I felt happy that my nose was finally whole again, I was sad about my appearance and all the scars I had been left with."

The grafting allows her to breathe well again through her nose.

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But her teen life was filled with struggles due to her condition.

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"After three months, I was in and out of the hospital once again, where they ensured that the skin wasn't rejected. I remember missing being with my friends at school and playing with them, and I started to struggle mentally," she recalled.

"My mum used to cry and worry that we wouldn't have enough money to cover all of my surgeries financially, and I used to feel down almost every day."

One of the insults she got as a kid was, "How are you doing Pinocchio?"

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Laudiane recalls that the kids bullied her when she returned to school. Another one she remembered was, "You look like an alien with that nose." Of course, she felt hurt by the insults and name-callings her peers did.

But she didn't give up.

Now, she works as a beauty technician.

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"I learned to be strong and brave as I had no other option, and if people couldn't accept my differences, then all that showed me is that they were unhappy with themselves."

Her first severe nosebleed was when she was 5 and 'sat in a pool of her own blood.'

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Laudiane said, "Within seconds, I began having a seizure which scared my teachers as they didn't know what was going on and I was rushed to hospital."

Due to technical difficulties, medics had a hard time trying to pinpoint the issue. Cauterization didn't work because they didn't know which blood vessels caused the bleeding. But it all cleared up when she was 16 and found out the real reason why she's been bleeding so much.

The insults continued well into her 40s now. But it's gotten easier to just ignore them!

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"My ordeal has taught me that you cannot let what others say affect you as life is so precious. I am not ashamed or feel inferior to anybody else due to the way I look and I believe that my condition has actually made me stronger and it will not deter me from living out my dreams."