Introduction

Hi! My name is BrachyFemmeFatale. I am 26 years old and live in NJ.

For almost my entire life, I have been battling Brachymetatarsia. It was something I got from my father who also suffers from it. Never in my life did I truly understand what my condition was, why I had it, and what I could do to fix it. To me, it was just something I got from my parents, like my eye color, my hair type, or my overall personality.

Simple pleasures in life such as wearing flip flops, going the the beach without water shoes, and/or keeping my toes above the sand were impossible for me to experience because of the sheer embarrassment I obtained over my condition. My friends would always ask "why the hell are you wearing socks, its 90 degrees out?!" and my reply would just simply be " Don't worry about me, I am comfortable", or some other lame excuse just to steer the attention away from my toes.

Here is a photo of my feet prior to surgery:

I've been dating my boyfriend for 10 years now, and it wasn't until nearly 3-4 years of dating that I finally decided to share with him why I had been hiding my feet from him for so long. Thankfully enough, he had already been aware of the condition and told me I had nothing to worry about. To him, I was still beautiful and had nothing to be embarrassed about.

As flattered and as truly good as I felt at that moment to have such an amazing man in my life, I was still petrified of showing my feet off in public. Unfortunately, not everyone in life is as nonjudgmental as my bf or as understanding. I couldn't bear the thought of having people stare at me whenever I tried to get a pedicure or wear cute revealing shoes. God, I cannot even begin to tell you how many beautiful pairs of shoes I passed in life that showed my condition. It was heartbreaking to know I could never wear something so pretty because of my ugly feet.

That was of course until a year ago ....when I finally decided to do research on my condition.