Owner of a successful career, Winnie Harlow did not let vitiligo be an obstacle and today inspires others

From an early age, we are led to think that we need to look like this or that. Curly hair needs to be straightened, our bodies need to be always thin and our skin must necessarily look like porcelain, without any trace of “imperfection”. But thanks to determined women like Winnie Harlow, today we see considerable changes in the demanding standards of beauty around the world.

The team of awesome.club thinks that if anyone deserves a round of applause, it’s Winnie. Not only did she believe in herself more than anything else and started working as a model, but she also established herself as an example of self-esteem for many people.

Winnie’s real name is Chantelle Brown-Young. She was born in Greater Toronto, Canada, and was diagnosed with vitiligo when she was 4 years old. Since her earliest childhood, the girl had to live with the feeling of being different.

“Growing up, I never saw anyone like me on TV, in advertisements or on catwalks,” said the model in an interview. “I thought I was the only one in the world like me”. Other children didn’t want her around due to her condition and, in an interview, she revealed how painful it was.

“I don’t think my skin condition affected my self-esteem as much as it did the people around me affected my self-esteem,” said Winnie.

As with many talented people, Winnie’s modeling potential was discovered by accident. Her “fairy godmother” was Toronto-based journalist Shannon Boodram, who posted a video on YouTube about Winnie and her condition. Quickly, more than 150,000 people had already seen the material. Shannon encouraged Winnie, then 16, to think seriously about pursuing a modeling career.

“She called me and said that I should continue modeling as the camera loved me and I was a natural,” Winnie recalled in the interview. “In fact, she couldn’t believe it was my first photo shoot.”

Winnie became better known in 2014, aged 19, when she participated in America’s Next Top Model, hosted by Tyra Banks. Although she didn’t win, she did go far in the competition. The experience seems to have been difficult for the model, as she rarely comments on the program in the interviews she gives.

“At that time in my life, I was told or made to feel that I couldn’t be a model, that it wasn’t for me,” she said on the subject.

Winnie Harlow has become a poster girl for a famous fashion house and is frequently appearing on television to speak candidly about beauty standards. She has won numerous awards in different fields and continues to rock the fashion industry with her bold opinions.

Winnie has been redefining the world’s stereotypes of beauty. “I believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” she says. The beauty tries to make fashion less aspirational and more inspiring.

She concludes: “I always say that we should focus on our own opinions about usand not on the opinions of others.”

Do you also find Winnie’s story inspiring? Are there any other models that you consider an icon of beauty and diversity?