Woman with rare skin condition proudly celebrates her wrinkles
When you’re 26 years old, finding the odd fine line or starting noticing crow’s feet is about as far as it goes when it comes to worrying about wrinkles. But Sara Geurts has much more to contend with than a few smile lines – she has wrinkles all over her body, and she loves them.
When she was 10 years old, Geurts was diagnosed with a rare disorder affecting connective tissue, called Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. As the condition compromises the collagen in her skin, it causes her skin to sag and fold, resembling wrinkles.
“In high school, I just tried to cover it up,” she admitted in an interview with Barcroft TV. “It wasn’t about until age 22 [or] 23 that I started to look at myself and my body in a completely different way.”
These days, Geurts couldn’t be happier in her own skin. “Just the uniqueness and the rarity and the way the lines form, and just the art that is made from the patterns that are there… It’s amazing,” she said. “It makes me so sad that I looked at it as this ugly thing at one point in time.”
To prove to others that being different is a thing of beauty, not “ugliness”, Geurts has taken up modelling, sharing her stunning photos on Instagram and encouraging others to embrace their flaws.
“My main aspiration for modelling would be to break society's standards, and the mentality that they have for perfection and to really show that it is your imperfections and your uniqueness that is the true beauty,” she said.
In a powerful guest post for The Mighty, Geurts expresses her desire to help others learn how to accept themselves. “Real beauty lies within ourselves,” she writes. “By reinforcing the mindset that our imperfections are real and beautiful, I hope to lessen the journey and struggle of others on the road to self-love.”
Take a look at her stunning modelling photos in the gallery above and tell us in the comments below, which of your “flaws” have you learned to celebrate?
Image credit: Sara Geurts/Instagram.