A 26-year-old woman was bullied as a child and was told she looked like a dinosaur because of her three-fingered hands. The bullying was so intense that she ended up having to switch schools.

Now she is embracing the connection and play as DJ Dino and sells casts of her hand to become a role model to other people. But what could have caused her condition?

T rex named Trix at Naturalis Museum of Leiden
(Photo : Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)
A detailed view of the hands or claws of Trix the female T-Rex exhibition at the Naturalis or Natural History Museum of Leiden on October 17, 2016 in Leiden, Netherlands.

Cassidy's Story: Living With Three-Fingered Hands

Cassidy Laramee is from Chicopee, Massachusetts, and was born with one thumb and two fingers on her right hand and an additional thumb and malformed finger on her left. Today, the auto saleswoman has one thumb and two fingers on each hand.

She detailed how she was ridiculed in school and was compared to a T-Rex or velociraptor because of her hands. According to MailOnline, Cassidy had a pinky finger and two thumbs but they were removed when she was a baby. Now, she cannot even tell what kind of fingers she has aside from her thumbs.

In the third grade, she was bullied out of her school so they ended up moving and switching schools. Luckily, her peers at her new school were kind to her. But still, some people would call her names and that she kind of just adopted them.

Growing up, she tried avoiding nail salons after feeling self-conscious when a nail technician used a toenail extension on her thumb. But she found inspiration from Megan Fox's toe thumbs and gathered the confidence to get them done.

Now, she is starting to make casts of her unique hands for other people, especially those who had a similar condition as hers. It was for fun only at first but a bunch of people started saying they would want to buy too. She is also a DJ now in a karaoke club under the name DJ Dino.

However, living with three fingers also has disadvantages and health complications. Cassidy said that she would have a hard time opening jars, bags of chips, and doors. More so, her hands are a bit achy as she developed early-onset arthritis. But of course, it also comes with advantages, like getting to the end of a Pringles can and using them like claw machines to get things in tricky places.

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Congenital Hand Deformities

There are a lot of people who struggle with the same condition as Cassidy. Although the report from MailOnline did not specify her condition, some congenital hand deformities may have caused it as per NYU Langone Health.

Congenital hand deformities are hand malformations that appear in a newborn at birth. Orthopedic hand surgeons identify and treat children with various forms of hand abnormalities, which come in several varieties; the following are the most common:

  • Polydactyly- It is a condition characterized by more than five fingers on one hand. A second finger is frequently a little portion of soft tissue that may be easily removed. The additional finger may have bones but not joints in some cases. The additional finger is almost never a completely functional digit. It is possible for a newborn to be born with multiple additional fingers. It is the most common congenital hand malformation is polydactyly.
  • Syndactyly- Hand underdevelopment is referred to as symbrachydactyly. This disease causes babies to be born with tiny or missing fingers. They may have webbed fingers as well as a shorthand or forearm.
  • Clubhand- A infant born with a radial clubhand has a hand that twists inward, resulting in restricted wrist mobility. It affects the forearm and hand's radial, or thumb, side. A person's forearm may be shorter than usual, and they may have little or no thumb.


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