Have you ever suffered from thin scalp and hair (so thin that you basically do not know what it feels like to have a head full of hair)? Have you ever had abnormally shaped nails? Have you ever suffered from hypo-pigmented skin? Have you ever suffered from severe bleeding and infection, almost daily, because of your own skin? Have you ever lose all of your teeth, knowing they won’t grow back?
If so, what have you done? How did you manage to handle all of this? Because, let’s be honest, it doesn’t seem to be that easy.
In a world were a certain type of standardized beauty is the norm (and anyone who is different is considered to be ugly), living with such a condition, whose name is Ectodermal Dysplasia, might be a living nightmare. And it was, to model Melanie Gaydos.
Melanie, who is now a (role) model, has been bullied all her life because of Ectodermal Dysplasia.
As if dealing with this disease wasn’t enough, she also had to deal with an alcoholic family, abuse and suicidal thoughts.
Brave as only a few human beings could be, instead of killing herself she decided to defeat her disease and her personal problems also thanks to an ascending modeling career, which has been giving her a huge success since 2011.
She decided to open up about this condition in a beautiful interview , which is part of series called The What’s Underneath Project, where she tells us things like how Ectodermal Dysplasia has (and still is) affecting her life, both physically and mentally (just to give you some numbers: she had to face more than 30 surgeries because of it).
In this interview, Melanie also talks about her views on both body image and beauty (“For me, beauty is more a feeling and a state of being”), giving us the point of view of someone who has lived without being a ‘standardized beauty’ (while being surrounded by ‘standardized beauties’) throughout all her life.
Listening to her beautiful voice, while looking at her portfolio on Tumblr, is nothing but a big inspiration for everyone.
(And, for all the Rammstein enthusiasts out there, she has also started in one of their video. Mein Hertz Brennt -My heart burns-).
If you want to learn more about the What’s Underneath Project, you could watch some of their videos on Youtube.