What a brave young woman!
Model Hanne Gaby Odiele has revealed that she is intersex in a new interview with USA Today, in hopes of shedding light on a condition that affects about 1.7% of the population.
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The 29-year-old Belgian doesn’t want any negativity or stigma attached to the condition, which is why she’s speaking out.
She said:
“It is very important to me in my life right now to break the taboo. At this point, in this day and age, it should be perfectly all right to talk about this.”
Hanne was born with an intersex trait called Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS), which causes a woman to have XY chromosomes usually found in a man.
She also had undescended testes, which her parents were told had to be removed as a cancer preventative. They were also told she would “not develop as a normal, female girl.”
At ten years old, Hanne had to undergo surgery to remove her testes. She recalled:
“I knew at one point after the surgery I could not have kids, I was not having my period. I knew something was wrong with me.”
Later, at 18, the model had to undergo vaginal reconstruction surgery. Both surgeries still weigh heavily on her today:
“It’s not that big of a deal being intersex. If they were just honest from the beginning… It became a trauma because of what they did.”
Today, Hanne plans on doing anything she can to raise awareness of this issue, and to prevent surgeries from being done on young children who are not necessarily aware of what is being done to them.
She has the support of the fashion industry (her story will appear in an upcoming issue of Vogue magazine) and of her husband John Swiatek, who said:
“I am very impressed with her decision to advocate for intersex children in order to give them an opportunity to make up their own minds about their bodies, unlike the lack of options and information Hanne and her family (and many others) were given.”
We’re impressed as well! And proud! Fight on, girl!
[Image via WENN.]
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