A woman who was invited to participate in The Undateables after posting a photo with her birthmark on social media says she turned down the offer out of shock. Lexxie Harford, 30, recalled receiving “so many emails” from strange men requesting to date and sleep with her after her photo went viral worldwide.
She was approached to go on the dating shows Too Ugly For Love and The Undateables within a week, but she was rejected. Lexxie, a Stoke-on-Trent Staffordshire, said: “I think they both try to hide what they actually are but really it was just about saying ‘these people are ugly in our eyes’.”
Lexxie first shared a photo of her birthmark on the website Imgur in 2015, not realizing it was public until it received a lot of attention.
Lexxie was called by an American reporter who asked to write an article on her after the selfie was liked more than 100,000 times.
“I agreed it would raise awareness, and then off the back of that loads of people reached out to me – it went viral before going viral was really a thing,” Lexxie said.
“For someone who might be more sensitive, I can only imagine what it might have done to them.
“Some people were saying ‘I love how you look’ and other people were saying, ‘So you want to be on Too Ugly For Love?’
“I got so many emails from men. One guy said he was married but wanted to be ‘more than friends and another offered to build me a house.
“I remember thinking, ‘This is bananas’. So many people reached out to me saying, ‘I have this too and I’m not going to wear makeup now.’
After that, she was approached by the hit Channel 4 dating show, and a makeup ad invited her to promote skincare and celebrate people’s differences.
Lexxie says she has mixed feelings about becoming viral eight years later, but she is happy for the most part.
“I’ve always been okay with how my face looks. I’m not self-conscious of my face, but I’ve had a lot of people reach out to me who have found confidence because of the story going viral,” she said.
“I think it’s a really good thing and it was where I saw the change start. I don’t mind it being part of my identity, wish I knew a better way to continue to raise awareness.”
