Kris Nolan as a baby with his mother, showing the early presence of his port-wine stain birthmark.

About

I’m Kris Nolan — author of VISIBLE, a memoir about living with a port-wine stain birthmark and learning what it means to be seen.

I write and share work about visibility, identity, and what it means to live openly in your own skin.

I was born with a large port-wine stain birthmark. Growing up, I carried it into every room, every classroom, every social moment. And with it came questions — questions that were often louder than the answers available at the time.

Will this get easier?
Will people ever stop staring?
Will I be loved?
Will I be okay?

My parents did everything they could to reassure me. They loved me deeply. But they didn’t have the answers — because they hadn’t lived this life. And when I was young, there was no internet, no community, no way to hear from someone further down the road.

For years, I moved through life without ever seeing someone else like me.

It wasn’t until much later — after living, travelling, forming relationships, losing confidence, and finding it again — that I realised something important. While there is plenty of medical and cosmetic information available about birthmarks and visible differences, there is very little about what it’s actually like to grow up with one — especially a facial birthmark.

How it shapes your confidence.
How it affects your sense of identity.
How it changes — and sometimes strengthens — the way you relate to the world.

This space exists because that absence mattered.

Kris Nolan with Julie in Europe in the late 1990s, during his early adult years living with a visible difference.

Through writing VISIBLE, I began to understand how much this story needed to be told.

I don’t offer technical advice or medical guidance. What I share here is lived experience — stories, reflections, and understanding shaped over time, from moving through all the stages of life with a visible difference.

This work is for anyone who has grown up feeling watched, uncertain, or defined by something they didn’t choose. And for parents, partners, friends, and anyone trying to understand what that journey can feel like from the inside.

I’m not here to fix anyone. I’m here to share what I’ve learned—and what living visibly has made possible.

Kris Nolan and Roxy dressed in elaborate costumes at a Burning Man–themed party.