For years, one of the questions Brooks Ginnan heard most often was as cruel as it was direct: “Do you have cancer?”. He was just a child, still learning to live with a body that others never stopped pointing out.
Brooks was born with ectodermal dysplasia, a rare genetic condition that can affect the development of hair, teeth, nails, and skin. From a young age, he knew his appearance was different, but it was other people’s stares and comments that ultimately turned that difference into insecurity.
Over time, he came to think that beauty was practically “everything I wasn’t”. That idea caused him anxiety and body image issues, and he found refuge in music, clothes, and the chance to create his own aesthetic.
Interestingly, he never thought he would become a model. He started posing for friends during college and ended up working for magazines like Vogue and W, walking for designers, and appearing in music videos by Sabrina Carpenter, A$AP Rocky, and Kesha.
And there’s something Brooks is clear about: he doesn’t accept jobs where his appearance is used to portray him as monstrous or strange. For him, being in front of a camera means precisely the opposite: “Being a model means accepting every part of my body that I grew up learning to hate”.
Today, what once made others make him feel out of place has ended up taking him to some of the places where, for years, he believed he would never fit in.