A WOMAN with a rare genetic condition that makes her look decades older is determined not to let her excessively saggy skin stop her from launching a modelling career.
Sara Geurts, 26, from Minneapolis, Minnesota, is one of only 12 people in the world living with with Dermatosparaxis Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS).
It causes her to have soft, doughy skin that is extremely fragile, as well as weakened joints and muscles that often leave her in a lot of pain.
After years of feeling self-conscious, covering up and hating her wrinkled body, Sara is now embracing her unique look and plans to move to Los Angeles to launch her modelling career.
She said: "I noticed it as early as about the age of seven and was diagnosed at 10.
"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.
"I would say my biggest insecurity was my skin. 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.
However, when she was 22, after a difficult break up, Sara decided she needed to change how she saw herself.
She explained: "It really was a difficult journey. But with the amazing support group that I had, I started to look at myself and my body in a completely different way.
"I was very insecure when I was younger and now I feel I am the most confident I have ever been.
"I tried to cover up my skin constantly. But now I think it’s just the most beautiful thing ever.
"Just the uniqueness and the rarity, the way the lines form and the art that is made from the patterns that are there. It’s amazing.
"It makes me so sad that I looked at it as just this ugly thing at one point in time."
Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is a fairly rare condition affecting only one in 5,000 worldwide, however only a dozen people have been diagnosed with Sara’s type of the condition.
Sara said: “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."
Although Sara doesn’t suffer from symptoms such as frequent dislocations and severely brittle bones, which are typically associated with sufferers from the classical type, Dermatosparaxis Ehlers-Danlos does come with its own pitfalls.
She explained: “There are numerous Ethlers-Danlos patients out there that have joints dislocate all the time.
"They are constantly in braces or 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.
"I have noticed as I get older, my symptoms play a larger role in my life.
"I refrain from wearing super tight clothes because it causes constriction and, because of the extra skin, it can rip and cause tearing.”
To deal with her joint pain, Sara relies on natural remedies such as massage therapy, acupuncture and medical marijuana.
She said: “The majority of the Ehlers-Danlos patients take copious amounts of opioids and pain medications.
"I stick to more natural remedies and prefer massage therapies, acupuncture and essential oils. Anything that’s basically natural I am all for, including medicinal marijuana.
"I took a vow not to prescribe myself a day-to-day pain medication."
One of Sara’s biggest supporters and the reason she got into modelling, is her friend Briana Berglund, who is now Sara’s personal photographer.
She said: “I’m so proud, she’s come so far over the last couple of years. It’s just crazy how much she has really come out of her shell.
"I don’t really see the disability or disorder in Sara. I think she is just beautiful the way she is. I don’t really notice any difference in her from anyone else."
Speaking about her modelling aspirations, Sara said: "I want to break society’s standards and what is viewed as perfection, to really show that it is your imperfections and your uniqueness that is the true beauty out there.
"We are in the generation of albinism models. We have melanin models. We have vitiligo models. We have plus size models. And those are all fabulous things.
"But the one thing that we are really missing are people with disorders within our everyday commercials.
"Personally I hope that by getting out there with modelling with my Ehlers-Danlos, I am able to almost be the face of Ehlers-Danlos. And not only, you know, raise awareness but spread the word, connect with people.
"I would like to go out to LA as soon as possible, given the modelling industry out there.
"I want to connect with new people to try and get my story out there and raise as much awareness as I can.
"That would probably be my venture for the rest of my life."
Last month we told of a couple’s nightmare after their baby was put in care for EIGHT MONTHS when doctors missed tot’s "easy bruising" condition.
Earlier this year we reported how a woman was unable to eat for 10 YEARS after corrective surgery for her S-shaped spine left her "unable to digest food".
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