Hiding Behind a Mask: A Conversation with Mary Avella

On this month’s myFace, myStory podcast, host Dina Zuckerberg is joined by Mary Avella, born with Crouzon Syndrome. They will discuss how those with facial difference can hide their true selves wearing both figurative and/or literal masks, even creating a personality. What happens when you remove those masks and reveal who you are underneath?

- [Announcer] Welcome to "My Face My Story, Voices From the Craniofacial Community," with your host, Dina Zuckerberg.

- Hello and welcome to "My Face My Story, Voices From the Craniofacial Community." Whether you're watching on YouTube or listening on Apple podcasts, quick subscribe now so that you'll never miss a future episode. And if you're a fan of "My Face My Story," rate and review the program on Apple Podcast so that we can get our message of inclusivity and empowerment to more people. I'm your host, Dina Zuckerberg, the director of family programs at My Face. I was born with a cleft lip, a hearing loss, and no vision in my left eye. "My Face My Story" is about people like us being seen and heard, about sharing stories within the cranial facial community and with others. Today I will be joined by Mary Avella. Mary was born with Crouzon Syndrome and she has had 30 surgeries. She is a student at Hunter College where she is majoring in psychology, neuroscience, and aspires to be a neuroscientist. She is passionate about advocacy for the disabled community and has been a member of the My Face family for a long time. She is also passionate about reading. Welcome Mary, I really look forward to our conversation.

- Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

- Great. So Mary, can you share with the audience about your facial difference and describe your difference for those who may not know what it is?

- Absolutely. Crouzon Syndrome is where the seams of the skull are not fused properly, and one the main symptoms is that growth in the middle of the face is decreased.

- And what was your childhood like for you growing up?

- That's a very good question. I mean, I do have plenty of good memories, but I have just as many bad. I mean, surgery was, I had my surgeries very young in childhood, so they were all very traumatic for me. And again, that was half my childhood. So it definitely was not easy. I was also very different from all the other kids at school. I was the only one that looked like me. I was in special ed class, one of the special ed classes. I had a nurse. At some points later, I had a para, so it was definitely an abnormal childhood.

- So what drew you to psychology neuroscience? And why do you wanna be a neuroscientist?

- Well, it is a very complicated answer. I was trying out a few different majors and I really didn't find the right fit. I was math, I was English, which is like total opposites, and I really didn't know what I wanted to do. And then I've been going to therapy since I was five. So I had like, I had an inside piece to that world of psychology. So I've been a part of it for so long. So I figured, let me just try this, and I took my first introduction to psychology class in 2022 and I absolutely loved it. I wanted to help people like me who have facial differences and who have autism. I'm on the autism spectrum, and I wanted to just help people because a lot of people don't have both autism and a facial difference. And it's even rare just to have a facial difference. So I wanted to, as I said, just help people. But then I realized maybe being a therapist wasn't for me, that was the initial path I wanted to go, and I figured, well, I still wanna help people, but I wanna do the research behind that. That's how I can still help people. And all that is neuroscience.

- Yeah, and I think we can use more researchers, especially in the craniofacial space. So that's great. So during the pandemic, we were all literally wearing masks, but I think many of us figuratively wear masks, especially for those of us with craniofacial differences. And you and I have talked a little bit about this. Why do you think we figuratively wear a mask?

- Well, it's actually, I'm studying this with psychology, everybody does it to a point. We all have different aspects of ourselves. Like for me, I have work, Mary, I have school, Mary, I have family, Mary, it's, everybody does this. It's how we function through the world. But some people put on different aspects of their selves a lot more, or they try and hide who they are a lot more. I think that some of us wear figurative masks more than others because society has taught us that we're not good enough and we're very ashamed of who we are. So we feel like we have to be somebody different.

- It's almost like creating a different persona of who we are.

- Yeah.

- To try to fit into that mold or that experience that we think others want of us, I think.

- Exactly, exactly. We think that, especially fro