A woman found out she had a rare genetic disorder after she assumed a group of men were "checking her out."
Bodil Janssen, 27, (@bobbiiejanssen) from Amsterdam discovered she had Marcus Gunn Jaw Winking syndrome (MGJW) five years ago when she worked in a bar.
A man came told her "she was really special" after he saw her eating a carrot in the bar, leaving Janssen bewildered.
In a TikTok video that has amassed nearly 700,000 views, the Dutchwoman recounts the humorous tale as she reveals how she experiences an involuntary simultaneous upward movement of one of her eyelids when she moves her lower jaw.
She told Newsweek: "So often so many people randomly stare at me while I'm eating, especially people I don't know, because they're like, 'woah, what is going on with your eye?'
"It doesn't affect my life at all, I do feel it but I'm used to it, it only causes questions from people that are curious and have never been bullied. I kind of like it, it's different."
Janssen revealed her mom noticed there was something unusual about her eye when she breastfed her daughter. A doctor didn't know what it was but confirmed it was not anything dangerous.
She added: "So we just lived with it. My parents never really made a fuss about it, so I grew up not thinking much of it and just living my life. Of course, I was aware but I always really often forgot that I had it."
Janssen paid little attention to her condition until one day five years ago when she was working in a bar.
In the video she said: "There were these guys that were constantly staring at me, which happens when you're a girl working in a bar, so whatever. But they kept staring at me and they kept looking over and talking to each other and looking over. And I was just minding my own damn business, just eating my carrot."
The men kept looking at her and then one of them leaned over onto the bar and asked if he could tell her that she was really special.
She responded: "What you don't even know me?"
Janssen revealed she felt very confused and then the man asked if she knew she had a syndrome as he had observed her eye while she ate her carrot.
He then told her she had Marcus Gunn Syndrome and he had been discussing it with his colleagues, who she presumed worked in a hospital located near the bar.
She added: "I was like, damn, I thought you guys were checking me out, but you are telling me that I have a syndrome.
"And then I, of course, looked it up later, and I was like, 'what the hell? I have a syndrome.' And now I know. I think that was still just super-funny that I was thinking that all these guys were checking me out."
Marcus Gunn Winking Syndrome is a rare genetic disorder that causes one eyelid to twitch upward when the jaw moves, making the eye appear to open wider, according to the National Organization for Rare Disorders.
There are only around 300 recorded cases in medical literature, according to the organization.
Despite the rarity of the disorder, many people in the video's comment section expressed sharing the same symptoms.
One said: "I have this! When I go to the opticians they bring in all the trainees because they say it may be [their] only chance to see it in real life."
Another commenter named Laura added: "I've never known what this is! Thank you! 35 and now I do! I just avoid eating in public!"
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