Google it, and you’ll see the same handful of names.
Usually, the internet points to a woman named Mary Ann Bevan. Sometimes a guy named Mison Sere pops up because he won a literal pageant for it. People love a spectacle, right? But the question of who is the ugliest person in the world is actually a trap. It’s a rabbit hole that leads back to Victorian freak shows, rare genetic mutations, and a modern obsession with "rage-bait" content.
Honestly, the "title" isn't an official award. It's a scar. It’s a label used by promoters to sell tickets or by cyberbullies to get clicks. When we look at the history of people who were forced to carry this brand, the story changes from "who is the most hideous" to "how much can one person endure."
The Tragedy of Mary Ann Bevan
For over a hundred years, Mary Ann Bevan has been the face of this search result. It’s heartbreaking.
Born in London in 1874, Mary Ann was actually quite an attractive young woman. She was a nurse. She got married to a man named Thomas Bevan and had four kids. Life was normal until she hit her early 30s. Then, a condition called acromegaly kicked in.
Acromegaly happens when the pituitary gland pumps out way too much growth hormone. Since she was already an adult, her bones couldn't just get longer—they got thicker. Her jaw grew. Her forehead pushed forward. Her hands and feet swelled to massive sizes. It wasn't just a change in looks; it was physically agonizing. The internal pressure caused blinding headaches and failing eyesight.
Then Thomas died in 1914.
She was a widow with four mouths to feed and a face that made people cross the street. Employers wouldn't hire her. Desperate, she entered a "Homeliest Woman" contest because the prize money was her only way to pay the rent. She won.
👉 See also: Black Red Wing Shoes: Why the Heritage Flex Still Wins in 2026
She didn't do it for fame. She did it to keep her kids alive.
She eventually moved to the U.S. to work for the Coney Island Dreamland sideshow. She spent the rest of her life being gawked at by strangers so her children could go to school. Even decades after her death in 1933, her face was used on Hallmark cards as a joke. It took a public outcry from medical professionals to get the cards pulled.
The Viral Nightmare of Lizzie Velasquez
Fast forward to 2006. The internet was still a bit of a Wild West.
Lizzie Velasquez was 17 years old when she found an eight-second video on YouTube titled "The World's Ugliest Woman." It was a video of her. She clicked on it and saw four million views and thousands of comments. People were telling her to "do the world a favor and put a gun to your head."
Lizzie was born with Marfanoid-progeroid-lipodystrophy syndrome. It’s an incredibly rare condition—only a few people in the documented world have it. Basically, her body cannot store fat. At all. She has 0% body fat and weighs about 60 pounds. It also causes premature aging and blindness in one eye.
The internet chose her as their "ugliest" mascot without knowing a single thing about her.
But Lizzie flipped the script. Instead of hiding, she became a motivational speaker and activist. She gave a TEDx talk that went viral for the right reasons. She turned the title of "the ugliest person in the world" into a platform for anti-bullying legislation.
✨ Don't miss: Finding the Right Word That Starts With AJ for Games and Everyday Writing
When Ugliness Becomes a Sport: Mister Ugly
While Mary Ann and Lizzie were victims of their labels, some people actually compete for them.
In Zimbabwe, there is an annual Mister Ugly pageant. It’s weirdly popular. The goal is to celebrate "natural ugliness" and remove the stigma, or at least that’s what the organizers say.
In 2015, things got heated. A man named Mison Sere won the title, beating out the reigning champ, William Masvinu. The crowd actually rioted. Why? Because they thought Mison was "too handsome." They argued that Mison only looked "ugly" because he was missing teeth and could make weird faces, whereas William was "naturally" unattractive.
The "sport" of ugliness is basically the inverse of a beauty pageant. It’s about who can lean into the grotesque most effectively for a cash prize. It’s a strange, niche corner of the world where being the "worst" makes you the best.
The Science of the "Other"
Why are we so obsessed with this? Evolutionary psychologists say we’re hardwired to look for symmetry and health. When someone looks vastly different—due to conditions like hypertrichosis (which caused Julia Pastrana to be called the "Ape Woman" in the 1800s) or Treacher Collins syndrome—our lizard brains sometimes react with fear or disgust.
But "ugly" isn't a medical term. It’s a social one.
Julia Pastrana is another example of how this label is used to exploit. She had hair covering her entire body and a protruding jaw. Her manager actually married her just so he could keep controlling her career. When she died in 1860, he had her body taxidermied and continued to tour her corpse around Europe.
🔗 Read more: Is there actually a legal age to stay home alone? What parents need to know
If you’re looking for the "ugliest" person, you’re usually looking at someone who suffered a massive medical misfortune.
Common conditions often associated with these labels:
- Acromegaly: Pituitary tumor causing excessive bone growth.
- Hypertrichosis: Abnormal hair growth over the entire body (The "Werewolf" syndrome).
- Progeria: A genetic disorder that causes children to age rapidly.
- Treacher Collins: A condition affecting the development of bones and tissues in the face.
How to Think About This Today
Looking for the ugliest person in the world says more about the searcher than the subject. We live in a 2026 culture that is obsessed with "perfect" aesthetics, filtered through AI and Instagram. When something breaks that mold, we label it.
But if you look at the people behind the photos, you see a common thread: Survival.
Mary Ann Bevan survived poverty. Lizzie Velasquez survived the depths of internet cruelty. Julia Pastrana survived a world that treated her like a specimen rather than a woman.
If you want to move beyond the clickbait, the next step is to look into the Global Alliance for Rare Diseases or support anti-bullying initiatives. Understanding the pathology behind these appearances makes the "ugly" label feel pretty small and irrelevant.
Instead of searching for who looks the worst, look into the history of the "Freak Show" era and how it shaped our modern views on disability and difference. It’s a much more interesting story than any "top 10" list.