Local mom asking people to spread kindness after a cruel Facetime prank goes viral

A recent social media prank has one local mother raising awareness of the cruelty behind it and is now urging people to not participate further in the challenge.

Heather St.Cyr, the wife of Christian artist Jordan St.Cyr, has four children. Their youngest daughter has a port-wine stain on roughly half of her face, making a 'challenge' like this, personal.

St.Cyr says, "Yesterday when I was scrolling through my Facebook feed I had these little videos pop up."

The prank/challenge was to pretend that you were Facetiming with someone, then get a family member or friend nearby to say "hello" to a new person. However, it wouldn't be a person on the phone, but rather a picture of someone with a visible disorder.

"When they turned the phone to the person that they were trying to prank, they were doing it to try and get a reaction out of them."

St.Cyr says, "It was just heartbreaking to see this large amount of people thinking it's funny to essentially make light of the way someone looks or think they're going to get a negative reaction because of the way someone was born."

In the past, the family has been out in the public and they had people ask what is wrong with their daughter.

"I will say on the flip side we've also had some amazing people that have come up to us and said, "How beautiful God's artwork is on her face" or how stunning she looks."

Emery St.Cyr who has a port wine stain on roughly half of her face.

St.Cyr's youngest daughter, Emery, is under two years old and her port-wine stain comes with a rare disorder called Sturge Weber Syndrome.

"She didn't choose to have her insecurities painted on her face. If people only understood what was attached to some of these facial abnormalities, they wouldn't think it's funny."

For anyone considering taking part in a challenge like this, St.Cyr says, "Choose kindness always."

"Before you hit that share button, sit back and ask, 'is this putting people first, or is this just for me to get a laugh on social media?' If it's not putting people first, maybe don't share it."