A dog tore off her upper lip. Five surgeries later, she's a voice for others with facial injuries.

At 20 years old, Brooklinn Khoury knew she wanted to do something different with her life. She was teaching English as a second language courses, but she wanted to focus on her true passion: skateboarding.

For a while, everything was going just as she planned. Khoury was building a career in the worlds of both skateboarding and modeling, landing major sponsorships and being featured in Vogue. Through the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, she continued building her platform and honing her skills. She wanted to be a voice for women in the sport, and had garnered tens of thousands of social media followers who were invested in her journey.

In November 2020, her cousin invited her to take advantage of a cheap flight and visit her in Arizona. The visit was normal, and the biggest worry Khoury had was about a zit on her upper lip that she was cropping out of selfies sent to friends. Then, something Khoury still can't identify triggered her cousin's pit bull, a dog she had known for years.