Kiki Wetherbee on seeing the beauty within

Michelle 'Kiki' Wetherbee (Photo: Don Morreale)

If Kiki Wetherbee has a positive outlook on life, much of the credit she says should go to her mother, Janet Wood.  Wetherbee was born with a host of physical problems, most noticeable of which were a bilateral cleft palate and a club foot.  To make matters worse, her eyes were set so far apart that 'my left eye couldn’t see past my nose to the right and vice versa.  I’d stand in front of a blackboard and could only write to the center.  Then I’d have to switch the chalk and finish the sentence with the other hand.'

Her infantile facial disfigurement was so disturbing to her grandmother that she tried to cover her face with a blanket as they were leaving the hospital.  Kiki’s mom promptly removed it. 

'This child,' she declared, 'will not be hidden.  I’m going to show her off wherever I go.'  And show her off she did.

' When I was six weeks old, she took me to one of those mall photographers who was taking baby pictures.  Some lady with a perfect kid said ‘How dare you bring that child out in public?’ and my mom said ‘My kid’s just as beautiful as yours.’  She saw having a special needs child as a privilege.'

At 6 weeks with bilateral cleft (Photo: Kiki Wetherbee)

Even so, childhood was no trip to the candy store for Kiki Wetherbee. 

'I knew I was different,' she says.  'One time a bunch of kids followed me home chanting  'Monster, Monster.' Mom said I should tell them ‘I may not be beautiful on the outside.  But I am on the inside.  You may not like me now but someday you will.'

Flash forward to the 8th Grade when a boy came up to her and said, 'You don’t remember me, but I was one of the kids who followed you home that day.  I still remember what you told us, and you were right.'

Wetherbee spent much of her childhood in surgery; 24 operations in all.  When she turned five, Dr. Ted Huang, a renowned plastic surgeon at University of Texas / Galveston, performed an operation to bring her eyes closer together.  It involved the removal of her forehead which he then narrowed and wired back in place.  'Finally I could see straight,' Wetherbee says.

Today, she is sufficiently comfortable with her looks to work as a cashier at the Wal-Mart in Englewood, at least for the time being.  'I don’t see myself working there for the rest of my life,' she says.  ' I want to go to art school and become a professional animator.'  She’s been drawing since she was a little girl.  'Making art helps me to keep my imagination going.  I have this passion to create something and to see how I improve with practice.  I put all my heart and soul into it.'

Kiki's mom, Janet Wood (Photo: Kiki Wetherbee)

Wetherbee also writes fantasy fiction. She’s created a character named Drago whom she thinks of as an alter ego.  “Drago is a picture of what I’d like to be.  He’s a guardian. Like an angel.  He’s fearless, the embodiment of love and compassion.  His best friend is a dragon.'

What have the long and difficult years of social ostracism and painful surgery taught Kiki Wetherbee?

'My looks have made me appreciate what people are like on the inside rather than how they look on the outside.  A couple of years ago I was waiting for a bus in front of the capitol building.  This woman walked by pushing a stroller with a baby in it who had a bilateral cleft palate.  I said, ‘I think your baby is beautiful.’  She ignored me at first and just kept walking.  Then she stopped, turned and looked at me. She said, ‘You had it too, didn’t you?’  I said, ‘Yeah.  I did.’  And she said, ‘I think you’re beautiful, too.’

Want More Information?
Bilateral Cleft Palate
Club Foot
Dr. Ted Huang

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