Watch 26-Year-Old Model With A Rare Condition Proudly Display Her ‘Wrinkles’!
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A 26-year-old model with a rare condition that causes her skin to sag like it normally would at an old age is proudly displaying her ‘wrinkles’ rather than hiding behind them.
Sara Geurts is an aspiring model who loves posing for the camera despite her condition, Dermatosparaxis Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which is causing her skin to sag uncontrollably.
“The classical type of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome affects our joints, it affects our skin, everything. It’s a multi systematic disorder, so it affects every system within our body,” Ms. Geurts said of her condition.
While the 26-year-old fortunately doesn’t suffer from brittle bones or regular joint dislocations associated with the syndrome, her case comes with its own set of drawbacks.
“There are numerous Ethlers-Danlos patients out there that have joints dislocate all the time. They are constantly in braces of wheelchairs. Thankfully, I have not had that severity with my joints. I do have severe pain and things like that but they do not dislocate on a regular basis as of yet,” Sara added.
“I have noticed as I get older, my discrepancies and my pain to my symptoms play a larger role in my life. I refrain from wearing super tight clothes because the more I do wear it causes constriction and because of the extra skin it can rip and cause tearing.”
As the girl explained, she first noticed something was wrong with her body when she was just 7 years old.
“I noticed it as early as about the age of seven and I mentioned it to my parents. It wasn’t till I was 10 that they brought in a dermatologist, because I started getting severe acne and sores on the top of my hairline,” she claimed.
“They did a series of tests including like touching my tongue to my nose. I had to touch my hands to the ground, just bend over the type of thing. They had me run through these series of tests and then they told my family and they were pretty confident that they diagnosed me with Ehlers-Danlos.”
Despite the support she received from her friends and family, living with the taxing condition was never easy for Sara.
“In high school, I just tried to cover it up. I didn’t want anyone to ask me questions about it. I didn’t want to talk about it,” she admitted.
“I just didn’t want to know about it. Everything out there wasn’t pleasant information for me to read. I would say my, my biggest insecurity with Ehlers-Danlos would have been my skin. From being out in public and wearing tank tops and dresses and shorts. As I got older it, it just kind of started to show more and more.
“I wasn’t bullied and my family and friends were very supportive, but I hated my skin. I was lucky I didn’t get any nasty remarks, but while my friends wore revealing outfits, I’d hide away in baggy clothes.”
Sara’s perspective, however, completely changed when she reached 22 years old and underwent a difficult break-up. She then decided to accept her saggy skin and share a picture of herself on Love Your Lines page which was designed to encourage people to accept their skin imperfections such as stretch marks and scars.
“The Love Your Lines Campaign was my first campaign that I had submitted my story to, as well as my pictures,” Sara recalled.
“I’ve received 25,000 likes and that was a privileged moment for me because it clicked – I could do something with this! It was just amazing, I literally cried for two hours because I was in disbelief.
“From then on I was dedicated to showing my disorder and raising awareness. It really was a difficult journey, a difficult road. But with the amazing support group that I had, be it my clinical friend or my cousin, who is also a plus-size model, they were the ones that turned me back on the road of self-love, self-confidence.
“I started to look at myself and my body in a completely different way. Up until that point I want to say I wasn’t fulfilling life. I was very insecure when I was younger and now I feel I am the most confident I have ever been.”
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