The photo-shoot was organized by model Sara Geurts,27 who has a genetic condition called Ehlers-Danlos syndrome which makes her skin unusually elastic, causing her to look almost twice her age. She shared photos from the shoot ,taken by her life partner,Briana Berglund to empower women of different shapes,color and sizes.
The beach photoshoot has 13 participants, each of whom represents a unique group: curvy women, women of color, women with mental or physical disabilities, women with rare medical conditions, and women with vitiligo.
One of the models,Sarah MacDonald, 20, who tells Yahoo Lifestyle, “We wanted to send the message that all of us are equal and beautiful in our own way. No matter where you came from, your ethnicity, body type, or health condition.” “There was a time that I would wear sweatshirts on the hottest of days just to cover my skin,” she confesses. “I dreaded summertime because that meant the possibility of wearing a bikini. I’ve been asked by so many people if I was in a fire, if I had poison ivy all over my body, or if I had hickeys everywhere.”
Another model,Carmen Rene shared a side-by-side photo of their shoot with Victoria Secret Angels on her social page and wrote;“Growing up, I don’t remember ever seeing a body like mine in a sexy swimsuit ad, and certainly not in a bikini,” she says. “This lack of representation furthered this idea that bodies like mine should be covered up, the idea that there was something wrong with my body. I wanted young women to be able to look at this photo and say, ‘Hey, my body looks like hers’ whether it was mine or one of the other amazing people in the group.”
“The more you speak about your body in a positive way, the more you will begin to accept it and eventually even celebrate it,” Rene says.
