26-Year-Old Woman With Rare Disorder Challenges Beauty Standards on Instagram

“My skin was my biggest insecurity, but now I just think it’s the most beautiful thing ever.”

These powerful words opened an even more powerful video talking about Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, body positivity, and loving the skin you’re in.

Sara Geurts was just ten-years-old when she was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a rare disorder that may include loose joints, chronic muscle pain, and stretchy, fragile skin. Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome is composed of a group of thirteen different sub-types of the disorder, and it affects approximately 1 in 5,000 people worldwide.

Initially, Geurts was uncomfortable with her diagnosis, hiding behind clothing that wouldn’t show her disorder. “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.”

As she got older, she not only learned to accept her wrinkles, but grew to love them. “It wasn’t until about the age of 22 or 23 that I started to look at myself and my body in a completely different way. The uniqueness and the rarity and 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.”

Now, Geurts is trying her hand at modeling, showing the world that you don’t need to fit into conventional beauty standards to be absolutely stunning.

“My main aspirations for modeling would be to break society’s standards and the mentality that they have for perfection,” she said, “to really show that it is your imperfections and your uniqueness that is the true beauty.”