At 26, Sara Geurts has fragile, wrinkled skin due to a rare disease. She made this particularity an asset in her modeling career.
Sara Geurts is only 26 years old. But her appearance is that of an old woman. The American may be young, but her body is covered in deep wrinkles and her skin is sagging. In fact, Sara is not a young woman like the others. She suffers from Ehler-Danlos syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that affects her collagen production.
Anyone who has taken a detour through the anti-wrinkle department has already faced this argument: thanks to collagen, the skin regains its youth. But this protein is not just a miracle product. It is also naturally produced by the body. It is thanks to collagen that the skin is elastic or that our joints are protected from premature wear.
Too little collagen
But since birth, Sara Geurts’ body has not synthesized enough collagen. She suffers from a classic form of the disease, which affects one in 30,000 people. From her teenage years, her skin wrinkles, weakens and heals poorly. His joints are too flexible. At first complexed by her prematurely old body, she has come to accept the increasingly obvious signs of her illness.
If the genetic disease does not affect life expectancy, it can be disabling. Besides the aesthetic aspect, the hyperlaxity of the joints, the pains and the extra-musculoskeletal symptoms strongly degrade the quality of life.
The face of a disease
The American woman’s thin, sagging skin eventually became an asset to her modeling profession. In September 2015, she participated in the campaign ” Love your lines », Which glorifies the scars and stretch marks which make the body of the women. “I hope to become the face of Ehler-Danlos syndrome,” says Sara Geurts to Barcroft TV.
After struggling with her appearance, the young woman decided to campaign for a more tolerant society. “Each of your imperfections is unique to you, it tells your story, who you are, the path you have traveled”, she explains to Barcroft TV.
As hard as it is on bodies, the fashion world seems to have understood this message. More and more young models are distinguished by their physical peculiarities. Melanie Gaydos has thus made of her Clouston syndrome a weapon to attract photographers. Winnie Harlow, meanwhile, charmed goals with her vitiligo.
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