This 26-year-old looks decades older, but chooses to OWN it

For years, Sara Geurts attempted to hide the fact she suffered from a rare genetic condition known as Dermotosparaxis Ehlers-Danlos.

As a teen, she felt compelled to conceal the effects that the connective tissue disorder had on her appearance.

With skin so fragile, saggy and wrinkled, she resembled that of someone decades older.

"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," she said.

"I’d say my biggest insecurity was my skin," Sara confided. "From being out in public to wearing tank tops, dresses and shorts – as I got older it just kind of started to show more and more."

It wasn't until Sara turned 22 that she decided to embrace her unique appearance and celebrate her body.

"The uniqueness, and the rarity and the way the lines form and just the art that is made from just the patterns that are there, it’s amazing," she insists. "And it makes me so sad that I looked at it as this ugly thing at one point in time."

And in a move which would no doubt leave a teenage Sara reeling, the 26-year-old decided to pursue a modelling career – an endeavour which has done much to boost her self-esteem and confidence levels.

But that's not her only motivator.

Speaking of her decision to lay herself bare for a photographer, Sara said: "My main motivation would be to break society's standards and the mentality that they have for perfection, and to really show that is it your imperfections and your uniqueness that is the true beauty."

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