Photos of baby Natalie Jackson of Sioux Falls, North Dakota are going viral this week, and it’s not only because she’s incredibly cute! Natalie was born with a black birthmark that covers part of her face in a unique way that makes her look like a superhero.

When Natalie was born, her mother Lacey Jackson assumed the birthmark was a bruise at first.

“Hearing her first cry was so special,” Lacey recalled. “Then the nurse lifted our girl up, after my c-section, and I saw the big black mark on the left-hand side of her face. She was so beautiful, but it looked like a bruise and I was worried in case it was something I had done to her during my pregnancy.”

When Lacey and her husband Andrew learned from hospital staffers that it was a birthmark, they were initially “filled with panic.” However, when doctors told them that Natalie was perfectly healthy, they realized they had nothing to fear.

Lacey and Andrew have now embraced the birthmark and decided not to have it removed in the hopes that Natalie will learn to love it just as much as they do.

“As I cuddled our gorgeous baby girl, feeling enamored by her, I worried that people might just see her for her birthmark, and not the beautiful person I knew she would grow to be,” Lacey said.

When the family’s older sons Elliot and Devin first met Natalie, they immediately said she looked like a superhero!

“One of the boys asked, ‘What’s that on her face, Mummy? What’s the black mark?’ I told him it was her superhero mask,” Lacey remembered. “I told them that, because of it, she could achieve anything.”

Several specialists have examined Natalie and said that the birthmark has no effect on her vision or overall health, so the parents have decided to leave it alone. They do worry that she may be bullied someday over it, but they believe she already has the strength she’ll need to get through that.

“We know she will come up against some difficulties, but her mark means she is going to be strong no matter what life throws at her,” said Lacey.

For now, people can’t get enough of Natalie’s birthmark!

“People tell us how amazing her birthmark is and how gorgeous she is and we couldn’t agree more,” Lacey said. “We’ll always tell her it’s a part of who she is and who she is supposed to be. People will always know how special she is with her birthmark and how amazing she is inside and out. It’s good to be different and as long as she embraces it, she will be stronger because of it.”

We think you look beautiful, superhero Natalie!

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