Eilish, Dunham, Jamil: How Ehlers-Danlos Celebrities Raise Awareness and Scrutiny
/By Crystal Lindell
I have to confess that I never watched the HBO Show Girls. It’s not that it looks like a bad show. In fact, almost the opposite. It sounds like a good show.
But as a young millennial flailing through life when Girls premiered in 2012, I worried that I’d see myself — including my flaws — reflected back at me. And I just have never been in a place, mentally, to process that kind of personal attack. So I didn’t watch Girls.
When the show’s top star and creator Lena Dunham later revealed that she had the same health condition as me — Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) — it only worked to confirm my fears.
A lot of people hate Lena Dunham, and a lot of people also hate the character she played on Girls.
What if, through watching the show, I discover that I am like her?
What if I start to believe that I’m worthy of the same level of hate? And in the process, I start to hate myself?
After I was diagnosed with EDS in 2018, Dunham was among the first celebrities I remember seeing reveal her own diagnosis publicly.
In the fall of 2019, Dunham posted unflattering paparazzi pictures of herself to Instagram — including one of her in a blue granny nightgown, holding a cane in one hand and a cellphone in the other.
LENA DUNHAM
“I could choose to be embarrassed by these paparazzi pics — I mean, that’s probably the point of someone publishing them in the first place — but I’m really not,” Dunham wrote.
“I could lie and say it was an early Halloween look… But the truth is just: This is what life is like when I’m struggling most with chronic illness. An Ehler-Danlos syndrome flare means that I need support from more than just my friends... so thank you, sweet cane!”
A lot of the online EDS community did not take the news well.
One Reddit user wrote at the time: “Lena Dunham is an extremely problematic and troubled individual. If there is ANY celebrity whose claims — not just regarding illness but regarding all facets of autobiography — should be looked at with a critical and cautious eye, it’s her. She’s not someone we should, as a community, try to turn into a role model or representative for EDS.”
The sentiment summed up what a lot of EDS patients were saying on the internet at the time.
Finally, a celebrity bringing awareness to EDS, and I couldn’t even be excited about it? Instead, I worried that the people who hated her would now hate me too.
JAMEELA JAMIL
The other big name to reveal her EDS diagnosis in 2019 was Jameela Jamil.
And, unfortunately, she’s another celebrity who a lot of people love to hate.
Two celebrities were out there spreading awareness about the very condition that has caused me immense health problems my entire life, but I couldn’t even post about it online without worrying about haters.
Over the years, a number of other celebrities have also revealed that they have EDS or a related hypermobility disorder, including: Selma Blair, Halsey, Sia, Cherylee Houston, Yvee Oddly and others.
‘Been in Pain Since I Was Nine’
Most recently, Billie Eilish discussed her hypermobility, a condition often seen as related to EDS, in a recent Vogue profile. At times, she feels like she was at war with her own body.
“I’ve basically been in pain since I was nine,” said Eilish. “Growing up, I’d always hear people be like, ‘Just wait until you’re older! You’re going to have so much pain!’ And I remember being so furious.”
Bringing EDS into the mainstream and creating awareness should, in theory, help more suffering patients get the diagnosis they seek. Ideally, it would also help lead to more research into the condition, including treatments and maybe even a cure.
In a perfect world, increased awareness would also lead to more compassion for those struggling with the often painful symptoms of EDS.
Sadly, over the years, I’ve watched the opposite often happen instead. As EDS has become more well-known, a lot of people have started to see EDS as a trendy diagnosis, the type patients want because they saw that a celebrity has it.
BILLIE EILISH
In fact, a few years after I was diagnosed at a university hospital, I had a different medical specialist at the same university walk into the exam room and greet me for the first time with, “So what makes you think you have EDS?”
He asked me as though I had Googled “EDS” on the way to the appointment and then decided to add it to my intake form on a whim.
In fact, that’s been one of the most jarring things about having EDS. The condition has very obvious visual markers, but people will still try to claim it’s fake.
My elbow extends way past the normal range of motion. You can’t fake that.
Every celebrity I’ve seen who’s revealed their own EDS diagnosis has seemed intent on making sure that it is not seen as the most defining thing about them. It’s a truly understandable goal. I don’t want EDS to define me either.
Unfortunately, EDS has started to be defined by the celebrities who have it: “That Lena Dunham-Jameela Jamil thing.” For better — and sometimes worse — they end up representing our condition in the eyes of the general public.
While most EDS celebrities don’t have a slew of hate-fans behind them, none of them are fully beloved by the public. And, of course, that’s because being fully beloved by the public is impossible for any human being.
In fact, all of us are flawed. So in that sense, EDS celebrities are just like us!
