A model and influencer from Mission Viejo, California, was forced to reevaluate everything after a dog ripped off her entire upper lip and parts of her nose in a horrific attack last year.
Before the incident, Brooklinn Khoury, 22, was working hard on her rising modelling career. The skateboarder was even gearing up to film her first ever television commercial, when suddenly, everything changed.
Brooklyn’s face (and her moneymaker) was dramatically altered on November 3, 2020, when she was attacked by a relative’s pit bull while visiting family in Arizona.
‘It was probably on me for a good 30 seconds, just shaking my head like a toy, ripping my upper lip and parts of my nose off,’ she recalled while speaking to Buzzfeed recently.
Brooklinn Khoury’s face was dramatically altered on November 3, 2020, when she was attacked by a relative’s pit bull while visiting family in Arizona
The dog ripped off the 22-year-old’s entire upper lip and parts of her nose during the horrific attack
Brooklinn, who is pictured before (left) and after (right) the incident, is still learning to embrace her differences, but tries to remind herself that ‘there’s no reason to hide’
In an Instagram post at the time, the model admitted that she was ‘scared’ for her future and that she wasn’t sure if she’d ever be able to smile again.
‘It’s crazy how your life can change so dramatically in the split of a second,’ she wrote.
‘I’m trying to stay as positive as I can about this whole situation, but I will be honest I am scared about my future, or if I’ll ever be able to smile again or eat normally.
‘This is the beginning of a long journey to recovery. I hate asking for anything but It would mean the world if you would pray for me. Please remember to hug someone you love today.’
But instead of being knocked down, the social media star came back even stronger.
She continued to post pictures online, and her Instagram follower count actually tripled. Now, she has more than 58,000, and it turns out, going through the traumatic event made her even more relatable to her followers.
She began earning about $1,000 per sponsored post and landed a bunch of major brand deals with companies like DC Shoes, for example.
Brooklinn even started her own YouTube channel, where she documented her road to recovery – with her first video gaining almost 250,000 views.
Instead of being knocked down, the skateboarder and influencer came back even stronger. She continued to post pictures online, and her Instagram follower count actually tripled
She began earning about $1,000 per sponsored post and landed a bunch of major brand deals with companies like DC Shoes, for example
‘I just decided there’s no reason to hide how I am,’ she told BuzzFeed of her decision to continue pursuing her career on social media.
Despite her success, the 22-year-old does still have a love/hate relationship with the internet, and sometimes when things start to get ‘toxic’ she needs to step away.
‘Beauty is so prescribed in so many ways. I don’t want to go on social media and feel like I’m not a whole person, looks-wise,’ she explained.
In an Instagram post last year, Brooklinn got real about learning to love herself, including her injuries.
‘I don’t really feel any different because when I’m out skating, or hanging around with friends I don’t feel any pain. It’s when I go home and have to face myself in the mirror that I realize I look a little different than how I use to,’ she wrote at the time.
‘I am not able to change the way I look at the moment, so I have learned to love everything that I see in the mirror.
‘We are all beautiful in our own ways no matter the situation. We need to learn to love ourselves whole heartedly,’ she said
In October, Brooklinn revealed that she was dating former Dance Moms star Chloe Lukasiak when she shared a pic of them holding hands to Instagram
‘Someone very close to my heart told me something that has really stuck with me the past couple days. She said, “Beauty cannot be defined.”
‘We are all beautiful in our own ways no matter the situation. We need to learn to love ourselves whole heartedly. Learn to love and appreciate the little things, and most importantly learn to see the “beauty” in everything.’
In October, Brooklinn revealed that she was dating former Dance Moms star Chloe Lukasiak when she shared a pic of them holding hands to Instagram, which she captioned, ‘My favorite human.’
Chloe shared the photos to her own account, captioning her post with a simple heart. She also commented, ‘My angel,’ on Brooklinn’s.
Now, Brooklinn is preparing for her first reconstructive surgery – one of many.
During the procedure, doctors will use artery from her arm and skin from her body to create tissue that looks just like a lip. It will cost $400,000 and require at least five follow-up surgeries.
She isn’t getting it done to change her appearance, however, but instead to protect her exposed gums. She said that she’s happy to ‘rock her no-lip forever’ and knows she is never ‘going to look the same.’
Do pit bulls have a tendency to turn on their owners?
- Colorado Injury Law reports that across the United States, there are more than 4.5 million dog bites that occur each year
- From 2010 to June 2021, there were 430 fatal dog bites, with 185 of those coming from pit bulls, and another 41 that were pit bull mixes
- Pit bulls make up only 6% of the dog population, but they’re responsible for 68% of dog attacks, according to Animals 24-7
- Colleen Lynn, president and founder of DogsBite.org, said that pit bulls are dangerous because violence is in their DNA: ‘Pit bulls were specifically bred with incredible aggression and fight’
- Outward Hound, on the other hand, reported that a peer-reviewed study analyzing 10-years of dog bite-related fatalities concluded that breed was not a factor associated with bite incidents and that ‘pit bull-type dogs have continued to be unfairly targeted’
- Thomas Edison, Theodore Roosevelt, and Helen Keller are amongst the famous faces in history who owned pit bulls
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Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
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