A bearded woman who thought she may never find love is now married and has spoken out about her relationship.
Little Bear Schwarz, 36, from Seattle, and husband Tobias Bradick, are a polyamorous couple - they appeared on This Morning to talk about their marriage.
The pair were friends for a year before they started seeing each other. Tobias responded to a Facebook status Little Bear had posted asking for someone to go on a date with her.
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But looking back at that time, the 45-year-old revealed he didn't expect anything to come from his message and thought she would actually reject him.
Since the age of 14, Little Bear has suffered from polycystic ovary syndrome, which causes excess hair growth.
Embarrassed by the condition, she spent the next 16 years trying to hide it and would shave her face and chest to stop people from realising how hairy she was.
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Sepaking to Eamonn and Ruth, she said: "My younger years were really difficult. I had this hair and nobody could tell me or help me [understand] where it was coming from.
"Nobody was saying I could just grow it, it wasn't presented as an option."
But when she was 31, she took the decision to move to Seattle and now says she's finally manged to embrace her differences and find love - though it hasn't been easy.
Shortly after relocating to the city, she said: "I found a flyer for a beard competition and I thought maybe I can make this lucrative. I entered a beard competition and I won.
"I didn't have a problem finding people to date, but I had to be sure it was someone who wasn't afraid to be seen with me, or the potential stigma of the man who dates a bearded woman."
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After going through a bad break-up, Little Bear put a post out on Facebook asking potential suitors to get in touch.
Tobias was that man and says he fell in love with her straight away.
He told the show: "She was always such a genuine, loving person. She's very real, she's not fake. She's the kind of person I want to get to know.
"I thought she'd say, 'Thanks, but stop being creepy.' But we just clicked and started spending time together."
But though the couple are accepting of each other, they say strangers can be cruel, with Little Bear even having received death threats in the past.
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She said: "People do stare. I wish I could tell you it's not a big deal and I could just ignore them.
"I get stared at, I get laughed at, people try to take 'discreet' photos of me. And being honest, it hurts."
Tobias says, however, that he tries to support his wife whenever she's feeling vulnerable, adding: "There are times groups of creeps flock to her social media and send her death threats. If we're in public and she feels uncomfortable, I just say, 'Come up and kiss me.'
"I think it kind of says, 'Hey, don't mess with her, she's with someone.'"
Featured Image Credit: ITVTopics: UK News, TV and Film, Dating, Interesting, UK Entertainment