Pooja Ganatra is a 24 year-old entrepreneur who is pretty much your typical Mumbai resident. She loves spending time with her family, giving to charity, and working on her clothing manufacturing business. The only thing that makes Pooja different from most people who live in Mumbai is her unique appearance, which has been presenting her with challenges all of her life.

Pooja’s parents were stunned when she was born with red hair, light skin, and freckles. She looks far more like someone who was born and raised in Ireland than an Indian!

Both of Pooja’s parents are typical Indians, so her fair features and emerald green eyes shocked them.

India’s culture is very inclusive, so the fact that she looked so different was very challenging for Pooja in many different ways.

“When I was born, my family had never seen anyone who looked like me before because they all have brown skin, black hair and brown eyes, like most Indians,” she said. “Everyone in my neighborhood was absolutely fascinated by me and were all very curious as to why I looked so different.”

Doctors have been left baffled by Pooja’s features, which have never been fully explained. Experts believe that she simply had the perfect concoction of recessed genes to cause this huge difference in appearance.

“When my freckles started appearing everywhere when I was three, because none of my relatives had ever gotten freckles before, they didn’t know what they were,” she continued. “I was rushed to the doctors because everyone thought it was a birth defect or skin disease.”

Pooja was bullied at school as a child over her features, but it wasn’t only her peers who discriminated against her.

“Even in my first year of university, I was pulled aside and told not to wear sleeveless shirts because they were ‘too eye-catching’ with my white skin,” Pooja said. “There was no rule against sleeveless clothing and every other girl dressed like me, yet I was singled out.”

Since Britain ruled India for over 100 years, it’s very possible that Pooja has a British ancestor way back in her lineage. She dreams of one day learning the truth behind her unique features.

“I’d love to get a DNA test one day to discover more about my ancestry because I don’t know anything about it,” she said. “I have no idea why I look the way that I do but a test into my genes could explain a lot. My grandmother died when my mom was very young, so I was never able to ask her about it but I’m very curious.”

Find out more about Pooja’s story in the video below, and SHARE this story so your friends and family can see this as well!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0JTavyJnzQ