Isa-Bella Leclair had two paths, and she saw them clearly from a young age: feel ashamed and hide her body, or show it confidently and accept that people would be curious.
She chose the latter. She was born in Campbellton, New Brunswick, with Parkes Weber syndrome, a vascular disorder that, together with a rare mutation in the RASA-1 gene, caused the lymph nodes in her leg to malfunction. The result: her right leg swelled to twice the size of her left and now weighs about 40 pounds, or about 18 kilograms. She can’t play most sports or wear tight jeans.
In 2015, at 19, she took a bikini selfie during a family vacation in Florida. The photo took off on social media, and she explained why she had shared it: she wanted other people with her condition, or with body image issues, to find comfort. A month earlier, she had won a title in a beauty pageant in her town to raise awareness of her condition. Her mother said she had expected her to come home from school in tears because she couldn’t do something, but that day never came.
“For me, beauty isn’t just on the outside”, she said.
