A woman who was born without a belly push button has relived the barbarous teasing she suffered every bit a kid.

Jess Kaufman, 30, was born with a rare defect chosen omphalocele, which causes a baby's organs to develop outside the abdominal wall during pregnancy. The organs have to exist put back inside at nascency.

The defect meant Jess, from Kansas in the US, didn't accept her umbilical string cut outside the womb equally it commonly is at birth.

But as she was growing up, her unlike appearance led some kids to call her nasty names - including "alien."

She said: "I had to have surgery as a baby to put my organs back inside my body and I was but left with a scar where they closed my abdomen so I don't take a belly push button.

Kids teased Jess and called her "alien" when she was growing upward (

Image:

Kennedy News and Media)

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"I started noticing that it was dissimilar actually early on and kids were mean. They would ask why I didn't have a belly button and phone call me an alien or say 'ew'.

"I was really self conscious well-nigh it and so I would cover it up and just wear 1 piece swimsuits. It made me hyper-aware of my body."

She added people used to tell her she could get surgery when she was older to "gear up" the omphalus, which caused her to get insecure.

Yet, as Jess got older, she turned a corner.

"I started to be a lot more accepting of it and realised information technology's part of my story and who I am," she said.

"Now I wouldn't change it fifty-fifty if someone gave me the opportunity to."

Jess doesn't know much most what happened when she was born because she was given up for adoption. All she knows is that her biological mum experienced complications with the pregnancy that might have affected the foetal development.

When she was a teenager, Jess'southward insecurities over her smooth stomach caused her to take drastic measures.

Her brother, Taylor, a piercing amateur, gave her a piercing where her abdomen push would commonly be.

Jess said: "When I was sixteen everyone went through a stage of getting their belly buttons pierced and I obviously didn't have a belly push button to get pierced which fabricated me feel left out.

As Jess has got older and learned more about her condition, she has grown to accept it (

Prototype:

Kennedy News and Media)

"My brother was training to be a piercer at the time and said he could exercise a surface piercing for me where a belly push would be.

"I laid down on the kitchen tabular array and he did it and I've had it ever since, I love it.

"At the time it fabricated me experience similar I was fitting in in my own way but after in life I realised I don't need to 'fit in' or be self conscious about information technology and I have control about how I experience about it."

The mum-of-1 is open and honest with her son, Mitchell, eight, well-nigh her tum and hopes it will teach him to be accepting.

"My son's always been curious about it. He asked me why I didn't have i and so I explained it and he asked if it injure and I told him it didn't - that was all he was concerned virtually," she said.

Jess was adopted, so doesn't know much about the circumstances of her birth (

Image:

Kennedy News and Media)

"I've never presented it as a bad affair to him and have always been very body confident around him, so he'southward always been really kind and accepting."

Omphalocele affects one in 4,200 babies, merely Jess thinks non enough people are aware of the condition. She never met anyone else with the status until she found an online support group for other people without belly buttons.

Exercise you have a real life story to share? Email jessica.taylor@reachplc.com

Now, she raises awareness of the rare condition on social media, in a bid to normalise different physical traits and encourage people to be more accepting.

Jess said: "In day to twenty-four hours life information technology's rare plenty for about people to be actually shocked and a lot of people say 'that'due south not possible' but plain it is.

"I've had a lot of moms of babies with it message me asking about how it's manifested in my adult life, and then it'southward absurd to connect with other people that have it.

"Information technology's easy to permit it make you insecure merely if you accept who you are you volition attract the people who are meant to be around you."