RP249505 AcceptedMyArm Youtube

I was born with a condition that causes my arm to swell

Some of the worst things people have said, they called me the hole. I'm just a beautiful person

Nothing is ever going to be able to affect that. So today I'm going to be challenging myself to go to a lake in Vermont in the wintertime

and take pictures with no coat on. Okay, let's go. My name is Olivia Kloptchen

I'm 17 years old and I was born with a condition that causes my arm to swell

I have a vascular malformation and more technically mine is a venous malformation

So my arm gets blood clots because my veins aren't regular veins

They're very wide and they constantly expand. I like to think of it as a hose

If the hose is too big, the water's not going to be able to get through it with a regular spout

So it going to kind of slow down and my arm clots up I was first diagnosed when I was only a couple months old I was still a baby And the doctors originally thought it was just a bruise

When Olivia was first diagnosed, it was very frightening. We had this little tiny child and had no idea really what was wrong with her

Some of the worst things people have said, it's mostly been online

I think I was 12, and somebody messaged me who I went to school with

Out of pure anger, they just called me the Hulk. It was the Hulky, you look like Hulky

And I, back then, was very hurt by it because I'd never been called anything like that

I'd never compared myself to anything like that. I think that I'm just a beautiful person and that nothing is ever going to be able to affect that

What I see in the mirror now, I love myself. So I started posting on social media because I personally had never seen anybody with it before I wanted to bring awareness It important for me because I felt lost when I was younger

because the only people I'd ever seen with anything similar to me were in a hospital

And so putting myself out there and meeting all these people meant I wasn't alone anymore

She has blossomed into an amazing young woman. Very, very proud of her

She always stood up for herself. It's her normal, even though it's not everybody else's normal

So today I'm going to be challenging myself to go to a lake in Vermont in the wintertime

and take pictures with no coat on. I'm really excited about the photo shoot

I mean, it's cold. I don't necessarily enjoy the cold, but I like to challenge myself to try new things

I want to achieve the message of spreading body positivity by taking these photos showing that you can be brave no matter what you doing even if it out in the cold and below zero weather It cold Okay let go

So that was a really awesome experience. I've never done anything like that. It was

super exciting. I would definitely recommend trying something more out of your comfort zone

The message I would like to put out to the world from my story is that everybody is beautiful and

all of our differences define who we are as a person and we should stop hiding them. What I

wish for in my future is to see others like myself putting themselves out there into the world and

not being afraid of who they are