Growing up, Christie Werts always felt a little different from the rest of her family. She was more sensitive than everyone else, and her thinner skin didn’t make her rocky upbringing any easier, especially when her parents’ struggles with addiction landed her in foster care. She grew up without much, though she was deeply ambitious and driven. Werts wanted more, and she couldn’t relate to her dad’s acquiescence to a life with so little.
And then there was the obvious: she looked different. She had no relatives with her same cleft chin, and her lighter skin tone was shared only by her mother, who died when Werts was 28.
