CARLY Findlay did not miss the irony of a media outlet publishing her Facebook photos without permission in an article this week.
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“And put them right next to where I said I’m worried about my photos being taken and misused, so that hasn’t been so great,” she said.
The program interviewed seven people with facial differences, some on their own, others in pairs, asking them often-awkward questions.
“I was really happy with how it turned out,” Ms Findlay said on Thursday.
“I was a bit sad – not surprised, I guess – to hear the other people’s experiences with difficult questions and … the pain that other people go through, emotional and physical.”
She wanted others to think more about how they react to people with facial differences.
“I hope that they realise the impact of their questions, even empathetic or curious or kind questions, can be tiring,” she said.
“I hope they realise that we don't want pity, that our lives aren't lesser because we have a facial difference.”
While many viewers made positive comments on social media after the show, Ms Findlay still received advice on how she should respond to inappropriate questions.
“There’s an expectation of people like me, like those people on the show last night, that we will just take it,” she said.
“That we will be polite and we will educate at all times, but I don’t think that’s a reasonable expectation of us.
“Generally I am, but if the straw that breaks the camel’s back is the piece of discrimination like the taxi driver not wanting to take me, then of course I’m going to get angry.
“I just want to go about my day, I just want to go and do the shopping.”
Comments and questions also impacted on her husband Adam, whom she met online nearly four years ago and married last year.
“I don’t know whether he realised just how much people would intrude before he knew me,” Ms Findlay said.
“He remembers all the things that happen and we laugh about it.”
- Carly Findlay writes at carlyfindlay.com.au.