I'm A Bearded Lady - And My Boyfriend Loves It | LOVE DON'T JUDGE

CORAL met her partner Illias on a dating site four years ago. She told Truly: "I was getting ready to delete it, I went on to go check my messages one last time, and I saw that Illias had sent a message to me." Illias joked that he had "the perfect timing." When they first met in person Coral felt an "instant attraction" and the relationship blossomed from there. When they got together Coral was shaving her facial hair every day. She has PCOS (Polycystic ovary syndrome), a condition which she was diagnosed as having aged 16. It is an ovary condition that affects how the ovaries work. For Coral, it has caused excessive facial hair growth, "I started getting facial hair when I was nine years old. It started out as very thick sideburns, then by the time I was 12, it was a full-blown beard," she said. "Honestly, it made me feel like a monster. I thought that I was cursed for the longest time. I get a lot of comments about Shrek, which is kind of funny because I tell people that Fiona was my first representation." In 2022 the couple became homeless and Coral finally decided to stop shaving after slowly considering the possibility. "I was dabbling a little bit two years into our relationship but it was really when we became homeless that I was feeling like it was impossible to continue shaving. I was trying to dry a shave in the car in the morning before we went into Walmart to go to the bathroom," she said. Once they moved in with family, living in their garage she officially took the plunge. "I was so tired of shaving it and just stopped," she said. Despite her comfort with her choice to embrace her facial hair, when she has gone out in public she has faced judgement from the outside world: "[People] really like to point out my beard and ask, 'What is that?'" This has caused her to retreat from her usual day-to-day activities. "The most comments we usually get are at the grocery store. We do tend to stay inside," Illias explained. "People stare, people gasp, people whisper." Coral has a big online presence, advocating for bearded women who want to grow out their hair. Much of the reaction is positive, but she has also received a barrage of hate. Comments such as "What are you?", "This is disgusting" and "This is what the devil looks like," appear on her feed. She even gets death threats. Nevertheless, she is steadfast in her decision to be her authentic self: "Now I really love my beard. I can't lie. I feel like I would be naked without it, it's definitely grown on me."