Image credit: This picture was posted by @josephineskriver on Instagram
Victoria's Secret model Josephine Skriver was born via IVF to a gay father and a lesbian mother.
In the first episode of a new video series by
i-D magazine, the 22 year old model talks about growing up as an IVF baby and what life is like as the daughter of two LGBT parents.
The video series by the magazine seeks to tell "empowering stories" of some of the world's best known faces.
In the interview to the magazine and accompanying video that was posted on YouTube on May 19, Skriver talks about how she and her younger brother grew up as "rainbow kids." "I am not a science experiment. I am not synthetics. I am a real human being. I am just as real as you are," she says in the video.
Skriver's mother, who was single at the time, wanted to raise children and have her own family. So she placed an advertisement in a local LGBT magazine. The first man to respond to the ad became the father of her daughter.
"I just had more people in my life that you would," Skriver says. As a kid, Skriver didn't think her life was any different from other children around her. "My parents were super open about it. No hiding, no shame."
However, at school, people told her that it was 'different and weird.' But she was never bullied. It was only when she started travelling as a model that she noticed the rest of the world was treating her differently. Social media is where she had the hardest time. "It's the one place where people can say whatever they want with no consequences. You get so many "that's disgusting", "that's gross", "I feel bad for you", "oh my God I can't even believe it"," she said, adding that it was tougher because she 'can't talk back.'
In the video, Skriver also says that she hopes the concept of family does not just remain a "traditional straight couple, with two kids and a house with a white picket fence."
In March, when fashion designers Dolce & Gabbana blasted IVF and fertility treatments that produce 'synthetic' babies, Skriver hit back by posting this picture on her Instagram account.
Now, she reminds the world she is not 'synthetic' in this video: