“I’m The World’s Ugliest Woman”- Mary Ann Bevan (Unsung Heroes Part-10)

Women are also known as the synonym of Beauty and Grace In us humans. Across the time women’s femininity implies that she is attractive and lovely. But it is also true that across time women are also humiliated by the stereotype ideals of Beauty by society.

If we search for “What Defines Beauty?” We get answers as a ‘Beautiful Women’, ‘lovely woman;, women of great physical beauty, the state of being beautiful. But is beauty constrained by good looks? attractiveness? loveliness? The Answer is NO.

Today I’m gonna tell you a story about a woman who has proved that beauty is skin deep. You can be proud of yourself as you are. It’s a story of a wife/mother named “Mary Ann Bevan“.

She was born on 1874 December 20 in Plaistow, Newham, London, England.

Mary Ann Bevan’s Early Age

Mary Ann Webster (Bevan Before Marriage) belonged to a large middle-class family, she was one of the eight children born in a working middle-class family. She was a bright student since her childhood. By looking at her keen interest in studying, her parents never let her off from taking education.

Mary was very attractive and charming along with being a bright student. Her politeness and compassionate nature led her to become a nurse. She started taking care of her family from an early age.

Likewise any other woman, Mary also has a dream to get married one day, wearing the wedding dress, to look beautiful. Also to build a family and to live a joyful & victorious life. Her dream came true soon, she got married to a handsome hunk Thoman Bevan at age of 29.

Thomas was a very benevolent spouse, always encouraging her whenever she need. Thomas and mary planned 4 children and lived their life divinely. But upon her marriage, soon Mary was surrounded by many diseases like Migraine, eyesight weakness, muscle pain, and various problem deteriorating her health.

But, her life took a new turn when she became a widow after 11 years of marriage and her husband left her alone with 4 children. Worse still, she left with no money to feed up her children and she turned solely a breadwinner for her family.

Mary’s Journey To Be The Ugliest Women In The World

After the death of her spouse, she faced many problems like no job, food, etc. but she kept herself motivated to uplift the morale of the family. But destiny wanted something else, her body started deteriorating, her facial expression started changing in an inappropriate manner. She was turning more masculine day by day.

Her entire body changed with large limbs and a big torso, which turned her looking like a ‘homely’ appearance.

She was adjacent with the rare disease named “Acromegaly“. Acromegaly is a neuroendocrine disorder, that results in an excess amount of hormones in the human body. It is usually caused by a non-cancerous tumor, adults of middle age are mostly affected by this.

In the 21st century, it can be cured but it was not possible in the 20th century. That is one of the reasons doctor’s got no clue about Mary’s disease.

Mary Ann Bevan looked for many jobs that would pay her enough to sustain the family. But wherever she went for a job interview, she got rejected and get mocked by using uncivilized words such as ‘freak’ and “ugly”.

The going was getting tough for her with every day passing. She had a responsibility to feed and care for her children and every day was a challenge for her.

Then one day she find a contest titled ‘The Ugliest Woman’, the contrary to her dreams to look beautiful she took participation in it. Luckily, she won the title and received a large sum of money to feed her children and support her family for a while. But that was not enough to run a family for a lifetime.

Labelled Herself as ‘The World’s Ugliest Woman’ To have a Stable Job

She knows that a one-time prize would not be going to be enough for her family’s survival. So, she started joining Circus shows to have a stable path of earning. She joined Coney Island’s Dreamland Show where she found many people of different characters and she was one of them.

The circus displays the people labeled as freaks, for instance, Bearded women, Siamese twins, Giant men, Dwarfs, and so on weird terms used for a human being.

She slowly became a matter of entertainment for people, they started making jokes about her. Gradually, she became popular and started appearing on postcards and greeting cards as a joke. It’s obvious that no one would ever like to be a matter of joke of his/her appearance. But that was the only way she could feed her family.

There was a huge demand for Mary’s after she started in the circus. As a result, she barely returned to Europe, she once returned to Paris in 1925 to take part in an exhibition. Mary’s life was changed and she can now give a better life to her children.

She worked for many years in the circus to entertain the audience but from inside she was dying every day by the disease.

We know her as the ‘Ugliest Woman in the world’ but she was the proud mother who cared for her family despite mockery and becoming a matter of fun. A mother is the biggest form of a human being, and Mary was the golden example for it.

Mary Ann Bevan’s Last Days

After the ‘successful’ or a ‘matter of laugh’ in the circus, Mary’s health was deteriorating as she suffered from acromegaly disease. A few days after, the disease snatched her life at the age of 59 in 1933.

We can say that Mary had a true love for her family and her country as she wishes her children to bury her in England after she dies. As per her mother’s wish, her children buried her at Brockley Cemetry in England.

Mary is not with us anymore but she always remains an inspiration to all of us. Even people didn’t forget her, since late as 2006 people used to make cards of her and even publisher used it as a hallmark card. She accepted the way she is. Her flaws became her power. People mocked her but that’s what people always do.

Don’t ever let somebody’s opinion dominate your inner self.

She established an example that in spite of making an excuse you can accept yourself as you are.

We cannot rely on resources given by others for surviving, rather than we can make resources what we have. We have to stay positive and always look for a better future, “Beauty lies is in the eye of the beholder “. Just be proud of what you are and what great you can do in the future.

Know any Unsung Heroes? Then c’mon, do let us know.

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Unfold the Stories of more Unsung Heroes here