Page 65 - People (February 2020)

I
Sharing Her Life on Instagram
It’s been 22 years since Camila Coelho had her first
seizure, but the memory of that terrifying incident
still makes her emotional. “I was playing with a
friend, and all of a sudden I feel my hands closing— Face Time
my fingers, one by one,” says the Brazilian-born “Falling even more
fashion and beauty mega-influencer, who was 9 in love with this
La Mer,” Coelho
at the time. “I told my friend, ‘My hands are clos-
captioned this shot.
ing!’ and she was like, ‘Stop joking, Camila. I don’t
t
i
believe you.’ Then I remember just fainting. When Tall n he
Saddle
I woke up, I heard my mom saying, ‘Camila, are you
Riding her horse
okay? Just talk to me.’ I wanted to respond, but I Koronus in her
couldn’t. That made me really sad and scared.” hometown in Brazil.
Eventually diagnosed with epilepsy, Coelho
followed her mother’s suggestion to keep it
secret from everyone but her immediate fam-
ily. “It wasn’t because she was ashamed, it was
to protect me,” Coelho says. “My mom told me,
‘Camila, you are a normal girl. There’s nothing
you cannot do.’ ” But now, with her own clothing
line, 4.6 million subscribers to her beauty, fashion
Lasting ove
L
and lifestyle YouTube channel and 8.6 million
“I know I can trust
Instagram followers, Coelho, 31, has decided the him,” says Coelho
time for hiding has passed. For the first time she is of Icaro, whom she
began dating
telling the world about her life with epilepsy in the
when she was 17.
hope that her story might help others who strug-
gle with their own medical issues. “I realized that Mom nd Me
a
I have this huge platform—I can use it to impact “She’s my best
people in such a different way,” she says. “I believe friend,” says Coelho
of her mom, Mary.
we all get stronger when we talk about our chal- “I always want to
lenges. If talking about it helps just one person, make her proud.”

I’m already happy.”
Coelho is lucky: Medication has kept her sei-
zures in check since she was a child. Growing up
in the Brazilian city of Virginópolis, she felt sim-
ilar to all the other kids. “No one saw me taking made me feel different.” It
medicine at night. I was happy,” she says. But after served as a wake-up call.
moving to Scranton, Pa., at 14 with her mom and “I learned something very
siblings following her parents’ divorce, Coelho— important when I was 17.
who had been warned by doctors to avoid alcohol I have this medication that
because of its interaction with her medication— can take my seizures away,”
began balking. “I felt different, and I didn’t accept she says. “I know that a lot of
it. Why do I have to take medicine every night? people, even taking the med-
Why can’t I drink?” she remembers asking herself
in high school. “I didn’t tell my mom, I didn’t tell ‘I am a the world who have much more severe diseases.
my doctor—I decided to just stop the medicine.” normal So why am I complaining? Since then I’ve been
Months later she suffered a seizure in front of person grateful for my life every single day.”
her teachers and classmates. “Each seizure I’ve and can Around the same time, Coelho fell for her
had was different,” she says. “That time I had a achieve now-husband Icaro, who’s been her rock over
really bad headache, then I lost consciousness the last 15 years. “I knew he was the one right
of what I was doing, but I was still walking and every thing away. I told him [about my epilepsy] in our first
COURTESY CAMILA COEHLO(4) I fainted. It was the most terrible day of my life.” I want’ making me understand how lucky I am,” she says.
that
doing things. It was like a long dream, and then
few months of dating, and he played a big role in
Coelho began her beauty career after high
Waking up in the hospital, she remembers, “I felt
— C A M I L A
guilty. I felt stupid. It’s not like I actually wanted
school by working as a makeup artist at a Dior
C O E L H O
to drink or party—it was just that that little thing
counter in her local Macy’s. “I started loving
February 17, 2020 69