CLOSE Fashion model Hanne Gaby Odiele is teaming up with the non-profit organization, InterACT Advocates for Intersex Youth. Odiele recently revealed that she is intersex and is hoping to give a voice to people who are often in the shadows. USA TODAY NETWORK 
 
 Hanne Gaby Odiele attends the 2015 CFDA Fashion Awards at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center on June 1, 2015, in New York. (Photo: Larry Busacca, Getty Images) 
 
 Hanne Gaby Odiele is a fearless fashion star known for putting herself out there in a bold and striking take on street style. 
 
 Now, the veteran of the runway and city sidewalks is revealing a more intimate piece of herself: Odiele is intersex. 
 
 “It is very important to me in my life right now to break the taboo,” says the 29-year-old supermodel from Kortrijk, Belgium, in an exclusive interview with USA TODAY. 
 
 “At this point, in this day and age, it should be perfectly all right to talk about this,” says Odiele, one of the first high-profile people to disclose her intersex status and share her story. 
 
 Intersex individuals are born with sex characteristics such as genitals or chromosomes that do not fit the typical definitions of male or female. Up to 1.7% of the population is born with intersex traits, according to the United Nations — a figure roughly equivalent to the number of redheads. 
 
 Beyond giving a voice to people who are often in the shadows, Odiele is making this disclosure to spotlight medical procedures intersex children undergo without their consent in a misguided effort to make a child appear more typically male or female. “I am proud to be intersex,” she says, “but very angry that these surgeries are still happening.” 
 
 More coverage:What it means to be intersex and how common is it? 
 
 Odiele was one of those children. She was born with an intersex trait known as Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS) in which a woman has XY chromosomes more typically found in men. She also had internal, undescended testes, and her parents were told that if she did not have her testicles removed, “I might develop cancer and I would not develop as a normal, female girl,” she says. 
 
 At 10, she had surgery to remove her testes, an experience she could barely process at the time. “I knew at one point after the surgery I could not have kids, I was not having my period. I knew something was wrong with me.” 
 
 At 18, Odiele — whose modeling career took root when she was discovered a year earlier at a music festival in Belgium — underwent an equally distressing procedure in the form of vaginal reconstructive surgery. 
 
 “It’s not that big of a deal being intersex,” she says. But the anguish of the two surgeries is an issue for her that is still troubling today. “If they were just honest from the beginning... It became a trauma because of what they did.” 
 
 AWARENESS AND OUTRAGE 
 
 Kimberly Zieselman, executive director of interACT Advocates for Intersex Youth, says Odiele will be a powerful champion for the intersex community and will help thrust medical procedures that try to “fix” intersex kids into the harsh focus they deserve. 
 
 Zieselman says Odiele will partner with her advocacy group. “I think her speaking out, having her voice added to the mix is going to culturally raise awareness in the mainstream,” she says, noting that groups such as the U.N. and the World Health Organization already condemn these surgeries as human rights violations. It will “help in raising awareness – and raising outrage.” 
 
 Zieselman, now 50, had an experience as searing as Odiele’s. At 15, a reproductive oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital told her parents she had a partially formed uterus and ovaries that needed to be removed so they would not become cancerous. Her parents consented. 
 
 When the married mother of adopted twin girls was 40 and struggling with a hernia problem, she obtained her medical records. Zieselman was stunned to find the surgery she had as a teen removed internal, undescended testes. Zieselman never had a uterus, ovaries — or cancer; she was intersex. 
 
 “My story quite frankly is not unique,” says Zieselman, whose group’s No. 1 priority is ending irreversible procedures. “Hundreds of women have a similar story. Hiding the truth conjures up feeling like a freak.” 
 
 A fear of non-binary bodies — not a pressing medical need — is often what drives surgical interventions on intersex children, says Sue Stred, a professor of pediatrics at SUNY Upstate Medical University. When a newborn’s genitals do not appear “typical,” parents can be compelled to have their child undergo cosmetic surgery to appear more ordinary. 
 
 As for concerns about cancer, Stred says there is not “good, long-term data” on whether someone with a condition such as AIS may develop cancer if testicles are not removed. “The possible percentage chance of cancer is vastly overwrought,” says Stred, who specializes in pediatric endocrinology. 
 
 LIFELONG REPERCUSSIONS 
 
 The consequence of removing gonads is a lifelong dependence on hormone replacement medications, Stred says, and permanent infertility. Other physical issues are reduced sexual sensations, urinary tract infections and incontinence. 
 
 The psychological repercussions of these medical procedures can also be devastating, Stred says. “There is a sense of betrayal when teens or young adults find out. Some individuals leave medical care altogether because they are so angry at what physicians did to them before they were the age of consent.” 
 
 And there is tremendous resentment of parents, she says. Kids think “something was done to me; you felt I wasn’t perfect; I had to be fixed.” 
 
 Awareness of intersex issues is slowly evolving, says Zieselman, who notes that many people don't even know what intersex means. Being intersex relates to biological sex characteristics. It is not the same as transgender: someone whose gender identity — how they feel inside — does not correspond with their birth sex. An intersex individual can be straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual. 
 
 “It’s amazing to me just in the last two years to see the difference in how many intersex young people are willing and comfortable to speak out at earlier ages. It is largely thanks to the LGBT movement ahead of us,” Zieselman says. 
 
 It is that group that may also carve a path on the issue of unneeded surgeries, she says. The transgender community “is doing it right,” she says. “No surgical treatment until (individuals) have psychological support. That’s a model we can use.” 
 
 Above all, Stred says there should be no surgery until an intersex child is at an age of consent and can weigh the benefits and risks. “You wouldn’t do a nose job on a 7-year-old,” she says. 
 
 A PASSIONATE VOICE 
 
 When Odiele’s career was at the starting gate in 2006, she was slammed by a car that ran a red light on the streets of New York, leaving her with two broken legs and multiple fractures. After several surgeries and physical therapy, she was back on the catwalk — just 10 months later. 
 
 She says the experience grounded her in her career choice and “gave me something to fight for.” 
 
 Now she is hoping to take that fighting spirit to the next level by being a passionate advocate for intersex youth. “It is an important part of my life to talk about this,” says Odiele, whose story will also appear in the issue of Vogue magazine that hits newsstands Wednesday. 
 
 Odiele has been more open about her status in the past year with close friends and trusted associates — particularly during chats about periods or having babies — but this is her first public announcement. She says she doesn't fear any backlash from colleagues in the fashion industry. "They will see me as they have before," she says. "Nothing should change." 
 
 Today Odiele loves to lounge in her husband’s clothes as her “go-to day to day” just as much as getting “glammed up.” She says being intersex has given her a forward-thinking perspective on fashion. “I didn’t have to fit into certain roles,” she says. “I was able to kind of have a sense of being more of an individual.” 
 
 Her husband, model John Swiatek, says he is “incredibly proud and happy” his wife is speaking out. “I am very impressed with her decision to advocate for intersex children in order to give them an opportunity to make up their own minds about their bodies, unlike the lack of options and information Hanne and her family (and many others) were given,” he says. 
 
 Last summer, the fashion star who has been in front of cameras for the industry’s A-list photographers and poses for brands from Dior to Alexander Wang, married Swiatek in an outdoor bash infused with countryside cool in upstate New York. 
 
 She wore a hooded cape draping a sheer lace dress, with cargo pants and a bra top peeking through. Bridesmaids strolled barefoot through fields in shimmering lavender slip dresses. 
 
 It was trademark Odiele. 
 
 Odiele, who calls her innovative style “just being myself; no rules,” has the same message for intersex youth today: “You can be whoever you want. It doesn’t matter.” 
 
 Follow Miller on Twitter @susmiller 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2jPBxiH ||||| To answer this question in an uncontroversial way, you’d have to first get everyone to agree on what counts as intersex —and also to agree on what should count as strictly male or strictly female. That’s hard to do. How small does a penis have to be before it counts as intersex? Do you count “sex chromosome” anomalies as intersex if there’s no apparent external sexual ambiguity? (Alice Dreger explores this question in greater depth in her book Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex.) 
 
 Here’s what we do know: If you ask experts at medical centers how often a child is born so noticeably atypical in terms of genitalia that a specialist in sex differentiation is called in, the number comes out to about 1 in 1500 to 1 in 2000 births. But a lot more people than that are born with subtler forms of sex anatomy variations, some of which won’t show up until later in life. 
 
 Below we provide a summary of statistics drawn from an article by Brown University researcher Anne Fausto-Sterling. The basis for that article was an extensive review of the medical literature from 1955 to 1998 aimed at producing numeric estimates for the frequency of sex variations. Note that the frequency of some of these conditions, such as congenital adrenal hyperplasia, differs for different populations. These statistics are approximations. 
 
 Not XX and not XY one in 1,666 births Klinefelter (XXY) one in 1,000 births Androgen insensitivity syndrome one in 13,000 births Partial androgen insensitivity syndrome one in 130,000 births Classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia one in 13,000 births Late onset adrenal hyperplasia one in 66 individuals Vaginal agenesis one in 6,000 births Ovotestes one in 83,000 births Idiopathic (no discernable medical cause) one in 110,000 births Iatrogenic (caused by medical treatment, for instance progestin administered to pregnant mother) no estimate 5 alpha reductase deficiency no estimate Mixed gonadal dysgenesis no estimate Complete gonadal dysgenesis one in 150,000 births Hypospadias (urethral opening in perineum or along penile shaft) one in 2,000 births Hypospadias (urethral opening between corona and tip of glans penis) one in 770 births Total number of people whose bodies differ from standard male or female one in 100 births Total number of people receiving surgery to “normalize” genital appearance one or two in 1,000 births 
 
 We were recently asked to update these frequency figures, and a lively discussion arose between two staff members. ||||| 1 / 6 Expand __SLIDE_TITLE__ __SLIDE_CAPTION__ __SLIDE_CREDIT__ See more photos of: Read Caption __SLIDE_TITLE__ __SLIDE_CAPTION__ __SLIDE_CREDIT__ Vogue may earn compensation on these sales through affiliate programs. See more photos of: Expand Photo: Courtesy of Kasia Struss / @kasiastruss See more photos of: Expand Photo: Courtesy of Alana Zimmer / @zimzimzimmer See more photos of: Expand Photo: Courtesy of Esteban Cortazar / @ecortazar See more photos of: Expand Photo: Courtesy of Simon Rasmussen / @simonrasmussen See more photos of: Expand Photo: Courtesy of Grace Mahary / @gracemahary See more photos of: Expand Photo: Courtesy of Nicholas Grasa / @nicholasgrasa See more photos of: 
 
 What happens when a crew of self-proclaimed “bad girl” models get together to celebrate a fellow catwalker’s wedding? Well, as you might expect, it’s a major throw-down. This past weekend, Hanne Gaby Odiele, the leggy model known for her outré street style married her longtime boyfriend and fellow model John Swiatek in a charming, bucolic bash in upstate New York. Odiele, a staple on Alexander Wang’s runway and campaigns, wore white low-slung trousers and a bra top from the designer with a lace overlay and an ivory silk cape thrown over for a bride-to-be effect. Swiatek looked especially dapper in a matching white suit. 
 
 Bridesmaids included models Kasia Struss, Anna Ewers, Sheila Marquez, and Alanna Zimmer, as well as makeup artist Tracy Alfajora, all of whom wore slinky lavender slip dresses and went barefoot. Guests included Ladyfag, who hung on a tractor in a slashed-up green leopard-print skirt and bustier tank, while Mica Arganaraz wore an artfully floppy plaid shirt and hip bone–hanging flares and Julia Nobis punctuated the rainy weather in a bright graphic jacket and sneakers. Louise du Toit, who officiated the ceremony, wore a blush pink robe and a violet stole. 
 
 Though many of those attending the wedding may have looked slightly more formal than their usual, late-night, partying selves, some habits are hard to break—or as Alexander Wang pointed out in his video of Odiele and crew strutting, “When u walk the runway down the aisle.” And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how a model wedding is done. ||||| Crawl of outlinks from wikipedia.org started March, 2016. These files are currently not publicly accessible. Properties of this collection. It has been several years since the last time we did this. For this collection, several things were done: 1. Turned off duplicate detection. This collection will be complete, as there is a good chance we will share the data, and sharing data with pointers to random other collections, is a complex problem. 2. For the first time, did all the different wikis. The original runs were just against the enwiki. This one, the seed list was built from all 865 collections. ||||| CLOSE At least 1 in 5,000 U.S. babies are born each year with intersex conditions _ ambiguous genitals because of genetic glitches or hormone problems. Secrecy and surgery are common. But some doctors and activists are trying to change things. (April 17) AP 
 
 Hanne Gaby Odiele attends the 2015 CFDA Fashion Awards at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center on June 1, 2015, in New York. (Photo: Larry Busacca, Getty Images) 
 
 Model Hanne Gaby Odiele is one of the first high-profile people to disclose that she is intersex. 
 
 The 29-year-old supermodel from Kortrijk, Belgium, said she is speaking out because she wants to "break the taboo" surrounding intersex people. 
 
 But what does it mean to be intersex? Here's a quick explainer: 
 
 Intersex individuals are born with sex characteristics such as genitals or chromosomes that do not fit the typical definitions of male or female. 
 
 "A girl may be born with a noticeably large clitoris, or lacking a vaginal opening, or a boy may be born with a notably small penis, or with a scrotum that is divided so that it has formed more like labia. Or a person may be born with mosaic genetics, so that some of her cells have XX chromosomes and some of them have XY," according to the Intersex Society of North America. 
 
 While intersex can be discovered at birth, some people may not realize they are intersex until later in life when they reach puberty or find they are infertile, according to the Intersex Society of North America. 
 
 How common is intersex? 
 
 Up to 1.7% of the population is born with intersex traits, according to the United Nations — a figure roughly equivalent to the number of redheads. 
 
 What happens to children that are born intersex? 
 
 People born intersex may go through surgical procedures to make their genitals appear more male or female. 
 
 Odiele was born with an intersex trait known as Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS) in which a woman has XY chromosomes more typically found in men. She also had internal, undescended testes, and her parents were told that if she did not have her testicles removed, “I might develop cancer and I would not develop as a normal, female girl,” she says. 
 
 At 10, she had surgery to remove her testes, an experience she could barely process at the time. “I knew at one point after the surgery I could not have kids, I was not having my period. I knew something was wrong with me.” 
 
 Are intersex people identified as male or female on their birth certificates? 
 
 In December, 55-year-old Sara Kelly Keenan received what is believed to be the first intersex birth certificate in the U.S., NBC reported. Keenan was born in New York City with male genes, a mix of male and female reproductive organs and female genitalia, according to the news outlet. 
 
 She was classified as a male for three weeks and then issued a female birth certificate and was unaware she was intersex until adulthood. 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2kj2Hez
– She's used to putting herself on display, but Belgian model Hanne Gaby Odiele exposed herself in a different way on Monday. The 29-year-old sat with USA Today and revealed something that "should be perfectly all right to talk about ... in this day and age": Odiele is intersex, having been born with undescended testes and Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, meaning she has XY chromosomes. Odiele, whom Vogue refers to as an Alexander Wang staple, says being intersex is "not that big of a deal," but she can't say the same for the two surgeries she has undergone, one at age 10 to remove those testes, which doctors told her parents could lead to cancer. USA Today calls her "one of the first high-profile people" to reveal intersex traits, which an LGBT initiative associated with the UN Human Rights Office estimates are present in 0.05% to 1.7% of people. (The Intersex Society of North America digs into the frequency question in a much more detailed way.) Now married to fellow model John Swiatek, Odiele says she's "very angry that these surgeries are still happening." A professor of pediatrics at SUNY Upstate Medical University tells the paper parents are often pressured into agreeing to subject their intersex kids to surgery when there is no medical necessity, but rather to produce more "normal" children. Odiele's story will appear in the next issue of Vogue; she plans to work with the interACT Advocates for Intersex Youth.