'My aim is to get a boyfriend'

Jess says she wants to 'look normal'

My name is Jess Lee and I am 17 years old. I live in Liverpool with my mum, dad and sisters.

I am different from my family because I have a rare condition called Apert Syndrome.

I don't know why I was picked out of the crowd and given this condition, as it affects only one in 70,000 people in the UK.

It means that I was born with a facial disfigurement.

I realised that if you look different, you will be treated as an outsider Jess Lee

My eyes were widely spaced and protruding, my nose and mouth were unusually small - rather cute I like to think. My fingers were also fused together. They looked like little mittens.

Since I was four months old, I have had over 20 operations for medical reasons.

My first operation was to release the plates in my skull, as they had formed in a different way, which put pressure on my brain.

The rest of my operations were mainly on my fingers, to separate out three fingers and a thumb.

Strangers stare

When I was younger I didn't realise I looked different.

After all, my family had treated me the same way as my sisters.

It was the desire to look more normal, whatever normal is, and the hope that, one day I might get a boyfriend that, in the end, convinced me to go for it Jess Lee

But recently, my parents told me that strangers did stare.

I was followed around regularly and one woman was peering into my pram so persistently, that my mum had to make a quick exit from the supermarket where she was shopping.

I first became aware that I was not the same as everyone else on my way to senior school one day.

I got on the bus as usual and sat quietly, minding my own business, when I noticed I was being stared at by a group of girls from a neighbouring school.

They turned away and then from nowhere turned back and shouted: "Her fingers, her fingers!"

Only two words but they cut deep! What's more, no one on the bus stood up for me, so when I got to school I was very upset.

I sat in the yard with my friends and cried my eyes out.

Turning point

That was a turning point in my life - I realised that if you look different, you will be treated as an outsider.

And so last year, I decided to completely transform the way I look - not because I needed to but because I wanted to.

I went under the knife again, but this time for cosmetic reasons. It was a long and hard decision.

Before I finally said yes to surgery, I remember thinking, why should I have to change the way I look to please others?

But it was the desire to look more normal, whatever normal is, and the hope that, one day I might get a boyfriend that, in the end, convinced me to go for it.

I hoped that if I changed my face, instead of standing out, I would be invisible in a crowd.

During my latest operation, my mid-face was reconstructed by the amazing surgeons at Alder Hey Hospital.

It was a tricky procedure which lasted an unbelievable 12.5 hours.

More surgery

Not only were my eyes rotated inwards and my cheekbones brought forward, but a piece of my hip was used to build a beautiful new nose.

But my face is not complete and so, next week I am going to have more surgery.

Because my mid-face has been brought forward, my lower face is out of proportion.

It is back to Alder Hey for yet another operation to correct this.

I can't say until I have seen my new face whether I'll have more surgery in the future, but I know I won't go on and on forever.

If you would like to find out more about why I feel so compelled to change my face, tune into BBC3 on Monday 30 June at 2100 BST. Oh and spare a thought for me. That's when I'm going under the knife.