I researched Mary Ann Bevan on behalf of a comic publication, she was the world’s ugliest woman, you may even know about her. She developed a condition called acromegaly and after her husband died she joined the circus to support her family. Her oldest son sadly died on the HMS Triad submarine in WW2, something rarely mentioned.
Interestingly she made quite a lot of money from being in the show as the world ugliest women. She clearly saw it as a business opportunity rather than something she was forced to do, although initially the motivation was to feed her children. Even to the point she appears to have a sense of humour about it. She recorded herself on censuses and passenger records as an Artist. She travelled to and from New York on Cunard, 2nd class and originally applied to the newspaper ad about the position. She clearly loved her children.
The younger photo of her online in a nurses outfit, as an attractive woman, is bizarrely not of her, which goes to show if something is shared out on the internet enough it becomes gospel, clearly something designed to sensationalize.
The more you get to know Mary Ann Bevan, the more you know, she wasn’t ugly at all. It reminds me of something Road Dahl wrote “A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”
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