In Bangkok, Supatra Sasuphan barely seems to notice the taunts and stares of people on the street. And at her recent kindergarten graduation, proudly showing off her diploma and wearing her cap and gown, she was regarded by all her fellow classmates as one of them. Other people might call her "wolf girl", but at school and at home her friends and family lovingly call her by her nickname, "Nat."

Seven-year-old Nat suffers from a rare genetic disorder known as Ambras syndrome or congenital hypertrichosis, a condition that makes fur grow all over her back and face. The disease affects only one person in a billion and only 50 people in the world have been diagnosed with it since it was first discovered in 1648.

But Nat, whose condition used to make people believe in werewolves, doesn’t allow all that fur to get her down.

Just like any kid her age, Nat, loves to play, laugh and smile, and enjoys trips to a local McDonalds with her parents and sister Sukanya, 12. She also enjoys cartoons and monkeying around with her friends at school. The young Thai girl is a blur in track, the second-fastest runner in her class, and gymnastics is one of her passions.

She’s a member of the cheerleading team. Her teachers at school say she is highly creative and intelligent, and she often has her hand up to answer their class questions before any of the other children. Nat’s dream is to go to college one day so she can become a teacher at university when she grows up.

Even though Nat’s Mom, Somphon, and Dad, Sammreung, are proud of their daughter and delighted with her accomplishments; they admit that her birth seven years ago was at first overwhelming. "We had no idea she was going to look like this," Somphon told a reporter. "I had a scan when I was pregnant and the doctor told me my little girl looked very hairy, but we thought it was just normal hair. I had a caesarean and when the doctor handed her to me I was really shocked. I cried at first, but then I realized that she is my baby and I accepted her as my own."

When Nat was very young, her parents brought Nat to a doctor who tried a laser treatment to remove her hair. The session worked only temporarily, and left her skin green and swollen. The hair grew back. Her father, Sammreung, said: "Doctors told us to try again when she is older, but we don’t know what will happen." Nat’s condition is so rare that doctors have been unable to find a cure. When Nat is older, she will have to decide for herself whether to remain hairy, or face a lifetime of shaving or using hair removal creams. Her parents express the hope that one day medical science will find a way to remove the hair permanently.

Nat’s condition has also left her with some real medical problems. When hair growth in her nasal passages restricted her breathing, Nat had to undergo an operation to relieve the condition, and may need another nasal surgery in the future.

Apart from the nasal condition and the hair covering her body, Nat is normal in every way. Her Mom told a reporter "She has hair everywhere but it doesn’t matter to us. She is absolutely normal. She is sometimes naughty and sometimes happy, like any other girl her age. Apart from her hairiness, she was a normal baby. Sometimes when people see her for the first time they stare at her and call her names. It is really upsetting when I see people talking about my little girl. But her father is very strong and he takes her out and never worries about what people think, because he loves her. We all do."

Nat lives at home in the family’s tiny one-bedroom home in a suburb of Bangkok, and looks forward to her first year in junior school. When her parents first brought her home from the hospital, Nat was greeted with stares and cruel jibes from neighbours, but eventually her cheerful disposition won them over. Although strangers may still call her wolf-girl behind her back, she has been accepted by the neighbourhood and by her schoolmates.

"I’m just a normal girl," says a shy but smiling Nat. "I like my lessons and have lots of friends. I may look a little different, but I’m just like everyone else.

"I just want to be me," she said, sitting in her Grandmother’s lap, combing her face and smiling broadly.