My parents moved from germany to the UK before I was born, and I was born with a cleft lip and palate, hardly an attractive feature. Through many operations it has been pretty much fixed, but primary school was no fun whatsoever, as my parents spoke german in the house and I found it hard to learn english, and it is very easy to make fun of someone with a cleft lip and palate.
2 years ago my dad died, and since then I tend to have trouble talking to people not in my immediate circle of friends. This has lead to me being somewhat unpopular at school except with aforementioned friends. In addition, April of 2008 I broke my leg very badly, requiring me to spend a couple of months in hospital. Bone sticking out of leg etc., and I now have a pretty bad limp, which as you can imagine does not endear me with the sporty crowd at my school, which is to say the majority of the school. Combined with the fact I got bone marrow in my bloodstream in the accident I am now extremely unfit and sometimes have to use a walking stick, especially in cold weather.
I never was one for mainstream sports, preferring kite buggying, dirtsurfing and other somewhat obscure things. While this did not make me popular, I can say that it has contributed to who I am (despite the dirtsurfing causing the whole leg issue) and I still enjoy these things immensely, though obviously not at quite the same level as before.
All I can offer as advice is never let anyone get you down, and just sit back and enjoy life. More fool your parents for listening to a clearly demented religous fanatic, and with regards to the camera thing, perhaps your boyfriend can take a piccy on his phone and post it? Me wants to see the awesome red eyes, mine are a boring brown, though I am similary blind without (clear) contact lenses.
I wish you good luck in your future. Remeber, only those who are different have the potential to do great things, though in my case it is unlikely to be football

. If you ask me, being popular is not important, as when you are not the most popular person you can be sure that the friends you have are good friends, who will stick with you through good times and bad.
I do apologise for the unstructured nature of this post, but I was just typing as it occured to me.