Meet the woman who is taking the shame out of being in hospital one selfie at a time.
Her name is Karolyn Gehrig and she is a disabled, multi-disciplinary artist living in Los Angeles. Gehrig suffers from Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) an incurable connective tissue disorder, which occurs when the body is unable to unable to generate colagen. It affects the skin, joints, muscles, ligaments, blood vessels and visceral organs, causes severe pain and requires frequent visits to the hospital.
Candid photos reveal the sex life of people living with disabilities.
Despite her diagnosis in 2003, Gehrig is managing to stay upbeat with a simple philosophy:
Wake up in a hospital, apply lipgloss, feel 1000 times better. And so created #hospitalglam – a selfie-fuelled social movement.
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Gehrig has traded in the usual waiting room trash mags for hashtags and is documenting her medical journey on Instagram and Tumblr. She’s also doing it while looking, you guessed it, glam.
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“There’s nothing about being disabled that I should be ashamed of. Taking care of yourself is really important,” Gehrig said.
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“The act of taking the photos reasserts my agency over my body in a space that is otherwise uncertain,” she said. “Sharing them transforms it into a way to normalize the experience of living with illness and hopefully lessens the stigma of taking care of yourself.”
These beautiful and unique photos will make you smile.
Check out some of the images in the #hospitalglam gallery. A trip to the neurologist never looked so good.
#hospitalglam
Top Comments
What's shameful about being in hospital??? I totally support her right to be 'glam' if it makes her feel better. But there is NO SHAME in being sick, needing to be hospitalised, nor looking like crap when it happens. I just don't get this at all. Don't understand what its trying to say or prove.
Just wondering what it would take for Mamamia to embrace person-first language.
"Her name is Karolyn Gehrig and she is a disabled, multi-disciplinary artist living in Los Angeles".
The thing is.. Karolyn Gehrig is so much more than her Ehlers-Danlos. She's an artist, she hangs out in L.A., she likes to look glam, she spends time advocating for people who have an invisible disability. She also happens to have a disability, which is clearly not stopping her from being herself. Why do we insist on labelling her for her disability first and not the person she is determined to be?