People with vitiligo often face challenges in accepting and loving themselves due to societal pressures and beauty standards. It’s hard enough being a Black person, but when you add in all of the layers that come from your family and peers to be “perfect,” it can cause major insecurities. However, many individuals with vitiligo have found empowerment and self-love through embracing their unique skin condition. They have become advocates for body positivity and diversity, using their platforms to raise awareness and promote acceptance.
It is reported that 1% of people in the United States have been diagnosed with vitiligo. As beauty standards continue to shift toward embracing naturally authentic phenotypes, especially in the modeling realm, it can be affirmed that those with the condition have a unique and rare beauty. However, embracing such traits fully requires one to have a rooted sense of self-love.
Self-love is the foundation of a healthy and fulfilling life. Once you accept who you are and own it there’s nothing anyone can say to you. You don’t have to be perfect you just have to be yourself, the self you love and are proud of. When you practice self-love, you prioritize your well-being and happiness, making choices that nurture your mind, body, and spirit. This is not something that will happen overnight. It’s a journey that requires patience and practice, but the more you cultivate it, the more you’ll see positive changes in all aspects of your life.
Through social media and other platforms, people with vitiligo have created a supportive circle to share their stories, struggles, and triumphs. This community has helped many individuals with vitiligo to feel less alone and more confident in their own skin. It’s 2024— people are no longer hiding themselves and we love to see it. Embrace the skin you’re in and love every bit of it because before you learn to love someone else you have to love yourself first.
Below, EBONY six models with vitiligo share their respective journeys to accepting self-love.
Yvesmark Chery
“It is nearly impossible to blend in when you have vitiligo, and living in an urban community with Vitiligo was indeed challenging. When I was younger, I remember seeing mixed expressions on people’s faces whenever I went out with my parents. Some adults would have a disgusted expression when they saw me, while others looked confused. Some people would act like they did not see anything; however, most would just look with dislike and laugh. Children—they gave the most trouble. Most would make a scene and yell, ‘Look, look, daddy/mommy. What’s that on his face?’ I would then hide back in embarrassment because of what I was and how they saw me. But, thanks to my vitiligo I’ve been changed for good. Life will always have obstacles, but it is better to acknowledge them instead of avoiding and denying them.
I grew to love my skin condition more after embracing self-love and focusing on controllable aspects of my life—such as excelling in academics and hobbies—rather than dwelling on external negativity. Three things that influenced that self-love was my relationship with God, support from my family/friends, and achieving my goals. After my emotional resurgence, life brightened, and I stopped conforming. Shedding the mask I used to disguise my true personality, I embraced integrity, humor, optimism, and confidence. People began to accept me for who I was because I accepted myself and became comfortable with my skin, uniqueness, and personality. I am grateful for each experience, even though the expressions on people’s faces never change. People still look at me disgusted and confused, and children still make a scene on public transportation. But, I have accepted who I am and have a more optimistic outlook on life. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, ‘To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.’ So, I will continue to be myself and strive every day to be no one but Yvesmark Chery.”
Deborah Giselle Elisabeth
“I started by looking at the positive sides of my skin. I am unique, I am rare and special. I started repeating that to myself to clear the negative thoughts. I still do it to this day. It has helped me with my self-confidence over the years. Self-confidence is like an earthquake, you feel it with your whole body.”
Terence Munzemba
”I began to love my skin on my eighteenth birthday, which was five years ago now when I made a choice to no longer hide it. Modeling gave me a significant boost in loving it even more because I finally saw and understood why people find it beautiful. As I constantly looked at my photos and experienced each project and collaboration, I increasingly understood how my appearance aligns with who I am as a person and what I stand for. I am still in the process of getting to know myself and showing the world what I can do with my skin and body.
After many conversations with people, I gained a clear understanding of how others perceive my skin, realizing that I have a superpower. I want to use it as an example, especially for young people, so they have someone to look up to with a unique appearance that symbolizes self-acceptance, beauty, and growth.”
Bailey Ramirez
“I grew to love my skin by committing to representing my condition as something happening for me instead of to me. My journey with my skin really forced me to come front and center, not just in the world but with myself. Leaning into the discomfort of such a drastic change while trying to embrace the strangeness of what I was witnessing happen to me was more challenging than I have words for. Every level of my ever unfolding condition has come with its own challenges. I have handicaps that I never thought could happen to me and every year I am experiencing a new aspect of my disorder that has an affect on how I am able to navigate the world. By actively and authentically challenging the parts of society that don’t make safe spaces for those like me who are different and unique; by intentionally challenging the parts of myself that want to give into the exhaustion and sabotaging inner voice convincing me that their rejection, mischaracterizing, overstepping, fetishizing, and sometimes crude verbal throw up I am able to love my skin more and more every single day. I wouldn’t change it for the world. It is now the absolute favorite part of me and I don’t want to remember a time before I became myself. I love my vitiligo.”
Kirtus Thibodeaux
“Self-awareness and self love to me means to be aware that even through my skin transitions, I was and still am uniquely myself. Self-love to me is getting to a place where I loved myself so much I decided not to take my own life back then. I embraced the beauty and everything that came with it. The good, the bad and the uncomfortable.”
Rumbidzai Mugabe
“My biggest reason for loving my skin was how I was continuously affirmed by my parents before I even had Vitiligo. God bless them for instilling this. You are beautiful Baby Rumbi. This is the greatest foundation and as a result I grew up believing I was beautiful no matter how I looked, whether i had short or long hair. I have had short hair for over 3/4s of my life, something a lot of people found reason to make fun of and mock me about. My mom wanted me to embrace my naturalness without enhancements first.
This could’ve affected me really because almost every school i went to i possibly was the only one who had short hair throughout the term, but it did not because my parents had already begun to call me beautiful before I knew or understood the mockings of how i could be mistaken for a boy.
When my Vitiligo started at 21, I had the greatest tool of all, I was raised with everything I needed to hear but not listen to the outside world. I knew who i was, owned it and believed it. I appreciate the skin I am in, and if anything, my confidence has continued to grow beyond anything I can imagine. As a God-fearing woman, I think he gives me a lot of strength to deal with a lot of discrimination as well, and what can I say, “I am exceptionally beautiful inside and out. I know it and I own it”.
