When I was 2 years old, a house fire left me with scars all over my body. Now I'm sharing my journey of facial reconstruction to show there's no reason to be ashamed.

• Sergio Reyna is a 24-year-old burn survivor based in Dallas, Texas.

• Reyna has been documenting his experience with facial reconstruction surgery on TikTok.

• This is the story of how he found viral fame, as told to Charissa Cheong.

One thing I'm happy to admit about myself is that I love attention, which is one of the reasons why I started my TikTok account last year, documenting my life as a burn survivor and my experience with facial reconstruction surgery following an accident I had when I was younger.

Earlier this year, I went to my doctor in Dallas, Texas, for surgery that would reconstruct my nose. I decided to make a TikTok video showing the lead-up to my surgery and the post-op results, which propelled me into viral fame and has received 75 million views since I posted it in September.

I've always wanted to go viral on social media, but the experience has shown me that I can also use my TikTok success to challenge the social stigma around facial disfigurements and surgeries and help others in similar situations.

After I posted about my reconstructive surgery, I realized there was an opportunity to educate people about the process

When I was two years old, I got burned in a house fire along with my younger brother. My injuries ended up being more severe than his, and I spent the next six months recovering in hospital.

I'm now 24 and have scars all over my body, and I have to go back to the hospital to get new skin cells added every year, so I can have more bodily mobility despite the scarring.

The surgery I had in September was the first reconstructive procedure I got done on my face, as my doctor wanted to wait until I was an adult and had gone through puberty so as not to stunt the growth of my nose.

I wanted to show people what the results of my surgery were, so I made a "transition" video, using a popular format on TikTok where people typically film themselves before and after getting a haircut, or undergoing cosmetic surgery.

I filmed clips of my face at various points leading up to the day of the surgery, on itself, and three days after the operation, when I was still wearing the bandages on my face.

The amount of attention it got was kind of overwhelming at first. A week, and then even a month after uploading it, it was still getting so much interaction from people.

I think part of the reason the TikTok ended up going viral was because I didn't speak in it, so it appealed to people all around the world who don't necessarily speak English. In fact, lots of the comments underneath the video are written in languages I don't understand myself.

It was nice to see that my TikTok reached people from so many different backgrounds, and I knew I should take advantage of this viral moment and start explaining more about who am I was and what my story is.

A lot of commenters said they wanted to see the results of the surgery, without the bandages, immediately, so I explained in follow-up videos that it was going to take months before my nose would be presentable without the bandages, and before there was a big dramatic reveal of my face.

I wanted to explain that this is a long process, and it's going to take time. I hope that other people who undergo reconstructive surgery can see my content and feel more mentally prepared for that fact, and I've been posting regular updates on my TikTok about the progression of this journey in real-time to help.

I hope my account destigmatizes facial disfigurements and encourages people to be confident in their appearance

I've tried to be really honest about what being a burn survivor has felt like for me, because I think that not many people feel that they can be open about the experience. I know a lot of survivors who say they've been bullied for their appearance, and I'm thankful that that was never really part of my experience growing up.

I hope that even by just showing my face, I can do something to show people like me that they don't need to feel ashamed, and that we're all still normal people.

I've never had an issue with talking about my life and how I got my scars. If anything, I've noticed it's difficult and awkward for other people to feel they can ask me about it, because of a sense of it being taboo.

I've started answering questions about my life from TikTok commenters, responding with honesty, and even using humor to discuss the situation, to show people that I'm not afraid to express my personality and show the reality of my day-to-day life.

I've now developed a following on TikTok of 290,000 people, and I want to use my platform to encourage other burn survivors, but also people with other disfigurements and disabilities, that they should be proud of being unique.

All humans are exceptional, and we're also all normal at the same time, so we shouldn't be made to feel uncomfortable about ourselves just because we're different.

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