Moebius Syndrome

When telling a joke or a crazy story people usually look for your reaction, a facial expression to determine if you understand or like what they are telling you or not. If you look like your really not interested people might perceive you as not caring about what they say or that they aren't that good at story telling. It is a natural thing to look at the eyes and mouth to determine whether someone is sad, angry, surprised, happy, or afraid. For people with Moebius syndrome, making friends can be difficult. 

Moebius syndrome is a rare condition where a person is unable to move their facial muscles to make a smile. Apparently, studies have shown that people who smile feel happier than people who do not smile or laugh at a something. However people with this syndrome experience happiness just as anyone else. After hearing about this condition I wanted to hear about it from a person who is living with this rare syndrome.

As you can see in the video, Alonso is laughing and acting like a normal teenage girl but while laughing, is unable to move her mouth to show smiling.  Because Moebius does not allow facial movements, Alonso has a hard time pronouncing words that have to do with the lips. She seems to be able to move her tongue but I have heard from other videos of people speaking about their condition, that they can not move their tongue so speaking is even more difficult. Some surgeries have been done to help the people express emotion on their face, such as, taking muscles from other parts of the body and putting it in the face.
I am glad that this individual is able to overcome the bullying that comes to her way because of her condition. Thanks to Alonso sharing her experience of Moebius syndrome, I better understand what it is about.