Not long after Yolanda found out that she was going to be on Real Housewives of Baverly Hills, Yolanda also found out that she got Lyme Disease. In 2017 Yolanda published her book, about how she was battling Lyme disease while she was filming for The Real Housewives of Baverly Hills.
What is a disability?
Disability can be a temporary or long-term injury that you can or can’t see. This can affect a person physically, emotionally, intellectually, or all three of them. From what I’ve heard, Yolanda’s situation is an invisible illness. Yes, she might look well, but you never know what’s going on until you do. Lyme disease is an invisible disability, chronic illness and a disease which limits a persons function in their day-to-day life. Yolanda shares the journey of trying to find a cure, not only for herself, but also for everyone else that is battling this condition.
Yolanda and her families struggle with Lyme Disease
After putting off her condition for over a year, Yolanda finally got diagnosed with Lyme disease in 2012. During her first season of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Yolanda found out that she got Lyme disease. Despite all of this she still kept to her deal with going on the show and writing blogs weekly about her life outside of the show. You can read her blog here. At the end of 2012, Yolanda has 3 part-jobs; from her role with the Real Housewives of Baverly Hills, as a mother for 3 teenagers, and her everlasting hope with finding a cure for Lyme disease. Yolanda was hesitant about opening up to the world about her battles with Lyme. After many discussions with her family and Yolanda’s immediate support team, she opened up about having Lyme Disease. Lyme Disease is the fastest-growing disease in America.
Yolanda has three children Gigi, Bella and Anwar. During their teenage years, both Bella and Anwar found that they had Lyme Disease. We didn’t hear much of Anwar’s journey in Yolanda’s book; but I remember Yolanda writing in there that Anwar come out one morning not feeling too good. Yolanda then got in touch with her doctor and not long after that he got diagnosed with Lyme Disease.
In 2016 Bella made an acceptance speech at the 2016 Global Lyme Alliance award. Yolanda wrote a little bit about this event and Bella’s speech in her book.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=1GWBug-Hacw%3Fautoplay%3D0%26mute%3D0%26controls%3D1%26origin%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Flaynecdixon.wixsite.com%26playsinline%3D1%26showinfo%3D0%26rel%3D0%26iv_load_policy%3D3%26modestbranding%3D1%26enablejsapi%3D1%26widgetid%3D1
Bella loved horses since she was a kid, but during her early teens she had to give her love for competing up and to start focusing on her own health journey. At that time her coach noticed that Bella wasn’t competing at her best for the past couple months. Because of Yolanda’s battles with Lyme, she couldn’t get to Bella’s competitions, but when she did, Yolanda know that something didn’t feel right for Bella, and from there she was diagnosed with Lyme. This invisible disability made Bella re-think her pathway after high school, and during that year Bella decided to stop equestrian riding. Bella also re-directed her love for horses onto the runway in the modelling world, while adapting her new situations and the struggles that Bella had with Lyme disease.
My thoughts
Since knowing about the disability community in 2018 I have met a lot of disabled people. Whether that’s through social media, or in person. And through this I have also met many people with invisible disabilities and chronic illness. I will never know what it’s like for them, but I personally loved this book. Because of the work that both Bella Hadid and her mother does, they have been given a platform to speak about Lyme, and some of the struggles that they have to face through their day-to-day life.
I would highly recommend that you read this book. Here are some suggestions (sorry, Australia stores only – for my friends/readers from other countries, you can find it on your version of Amazon and iBooks (Apple)) iBooks – PDF version. Click here
- iBooks – Audiobook. Click here
- Amazon – Paperback, kindle (PDF version) & hardback. Click here
- Amazon – Audiobook. Click here
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