Two Girls With Vitiligo Proudly Redefining Beauty On Public Platforms

Redefining beauty is the name of the game, and going public is the way to do it! We chatted recently with popular Youtuber Cassandra Bankson about how her acne makeup tutorials have empowered so many other young women who suffer with the same skin condition.

Cassandra has now been asked to share her story again as part of an online series for Dermablend called ‘camo confessions’. The idea behind the movement is to show audiences that having a skin condition or disease doesn’t have to affect your self-esteem and should not make you feel less beautiful in any way.

The other girl featured in this video series is Cheri Lindsay, who has vitiligo. It is a condition where white patches appear on the skin and occurs from a loss of pigment. There is no cure for this, and although it affects all races equally, the disease is more noticeable on people with darker skin tones. The reason for why the melanin-producing cells destruct is not known.

At first we see Cheri on camera just looking like a gorgeous woman with her hair and makeup done perfectly. Then she grabs a towel and starts rubbing her foundation off, only to reveal she has vitiligo, the white patches, all over her face, neck and hands.

The assistant volleyball coach says her vitiligo only started happening about 3 years ago in her sophomore year of college. It was not easy for her to deal with, but it forced her to ask herself some tough questions in a quest to stay confident.

“Does it hurt? No. It is contagious? Not at all. And can I still live with this and be successful? Hell yes!”

While she chooses to wear makeup on days when it makes it easy for people to approach her, especially in professional settings, her message is about accepting who you are.

“Don’t hide. There’s something wrong with everybody. Nobody’s 100% perfect.” Cheri goes on to say she wants her story to be public so that others with vitiligo will be inspired to live life to the fullest and not shy away from a skin condition.

You can see more of Cheri’s vitiligo confessions and makeup tips on her own Youtube channel, where she has 92, 000 subscribers! She is not the only young woman to go public with her vitiligo condition lately.

America’s Next Top Model Cycle 21 is currently filming in Los Angeles, and like the past two seasons, the CW network have been releasing all the photos from each shoot on the show, even before it goes to air. It is part of their campaign to drum up more excitement and social media fan engagement with the contestants.

This season they are featuring boys and girls for only the second time. One of the women is 19 year old Chantelle Young from Toronto, Canada. Her real name is Winnie Harlow, and she too has vitiligo.

Although contestants are banned from communicating with the outside world during filming of the show, which includes social media) she already has over 73, 000 followers on Instagram. The aspiring journalist calls herself a ‘Vitiligo Spokesmodel’  and has been modeling for quite some time in her home town.

Always one to push the boundaries of beauty on her popular long-running reality TV show, the fact that Tyra Banks cast Chantelle means she too wants audiences to see the different faces of beauty that exist in the world today.

“The people who are thinking that they can’t do what they wanna do because of the…flaws they have, you can definitely do it and I’m here to prove it,” says Chantelle in a youtube video promoting ANTM Cycle 21 where she is a contestant.

In this interview from 2011 she talks about Vitiligo not being a life changer for her, but being a vehicle to inspire others and educate them about the condition.

We love women who are bold and brave enough to challenge the boundaries, and who are lighting the way for many others to take a stand against unrealistic beauty standards. Self-acceptance is the key to confidence, and not being afraid to be different is what will carry you through the negativity.

Everyone has a story, but those who are willing to be vulnerable enough to share it will be empowered because they don’t hold back. One that note we wanna give huge props to Tyra Banks who is an unapologetic spokesperson for diversity in beauty in the cut-throat fashion world. let;s hope more will follow her lead.

Check out Cheri Lindsay’s ‘Camo Confession’ right here: