She dubbed herself “the girl with wrinkles everywhere”. At only 31 years old, Sara Geurts has the physique of a woman twice her age, the result of a rare genetic disease that affects the elasticity of her skin. Her name ? Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Linked to an abnormality in the connective tissue, which constitutes 80% of the human body, this disease affects the production of collagen, a protein naturally present in the body which allows the tissues of the epidermis to regenerate. Without this protein, the skin becomes fragile, elastic and wrinkles.
In the columns of The Sun, Sara confides that she had a hard time accepting her difference. “In high school, I tried to hide everything, she admits. I didn’t want people to ask me about it, I didn’t want to talk about it.” However, with age came wisdom and self-acceptance. In 2015, the young American embarked on a modeling career. A path that allowed him to assert himself and accept each of his imperfections. “My wrinkles are part of me, she wrote in a publication on The Mighty site. In each wrinkle lies beauty, each wrinkle is beautiful in its own way. No one else has the same as me, and that is what I find really beautiful.”
“I want to show that it’s your imperfections that make you unique”
Today, Sara dedicates her life to raising awareness about Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and encouraging her community to accept themselves as they are. “The main reason why I’m a model is that I want to break our society’s standards of beauty and mentalities around perfection. I really want to show that it’s your imperfections that make you unique, that it’s where true beauty is and should be celebrated.” On Instagram, Sara Geurts is already followed by more than 92,000 people.
Ehlers-Danlos syndrome wrinkles the skin before its time. ©Pixabay
