On Tuesday, Barbie announced their "most diverse doll line" called Barbie Fashionistas via Twitter account. "More skin tones! More body types! More diverse looks," the brand said in the Twitter post, which linked back to an online page explaining the new dolls a bit more.
According to the Mattel website, the Barbie Fashionistas line includes 176 dolls with 9 body types, 34 skin tones, and 94 hairstyles. "For 2020, Barbie is continuing the journey to represent global diversity and inclusivity in the fashion doll aisle by showcasing a multi-dimensional view of beauty and fashion," a Mattel spokesperson told CBS News.
For Barbie's vitiligo doll in particular, Mattel worked with a dermatologist to ensure the condition was accurately represented, according to CBS News. "As we continue to redefine what it means to be a 'Barbie' or look like Barbie, offering a doll with vitiligo in our main doll line allows kids to play out even more stories they see in the world around them," the spokesperson said.
According to the Genetics Home Reference (GHR), a division of the National Institutes of Health, vitiligo is a common autoimmune disorder that affects up to one percent of people, worldwide. In those with vitiligo, the cells that produce melanocytes, or brown pigment, stop functioning or die—possibly in an autoimmune response, in which the body's immune system begins attacking healthy cells. While anyone can be diagnosed with vitiligo, it can be more noticeable in people with darker skin.
RELATED: 5 Things That Might Cause Vitiligo
People who have vitiligo have no way of knowing how much of their body will be affected and how much color their skin will lose. There's no known cause for vitiligo, and condition isn’t life-threatening, but there isn’t yet a drug that can stop vitiligo from progressing
If vitiligo sets in during childhood, it can make the process of learning about your body and identity even more confusing, and, often, people with the condition are bullied because of their looks, which is why societal representation, (for example, the new Barbie), is welcome to the vitiligo community.
The new doll is the latest in a string of models intended to promote diversity within the Barbie community—in their newest Fashionistas line, Mattel also introduced a doll with no hair, meant to inspire girls experiencing hair loss due to medical reasons, as well as new fashion trends. In recent years, Mattel also announced a Barbie model that uses a wheelchair, as well as one that wears a hijab.
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]]>People with vitiligo have no way of knowing how much of their body will be affected and how much color their skin will lose. But the condition isn’t life-threatening. While there are vitiligo treatments that can restore a person's skin color, “results vary and are unpredictable,” according to the Mayo Clinic. Additionally, there isn’t a drug that can stop vitiligo from progressing.
Vitiligo can set in during childhood, making the process of learning about your body and identity even more difficult. People with vitiligo are often bullied because of their looks, but they also get many insults from people who are not necessarily trying to hurt them. We spoke to four people with vitiligo to find out what comments you should never make to someone living with the condition.
RELATED: 5 Things That Might Cause Vitiligo
Don’t ask if you can catch vitiligo
“Somebody asked if it was contagious,” Mariah Perkins, a 22-year-old who has vitiligo, tells Health. If someone expresses a fear of “catching” vitiligo, it signals to the person with the condition that their skin is less than desirable. Perkins’s skin started changing when she was in middle school around age 12, a time when people can be especially vulnerable when it comes to their looks.
McKyla Crowder, 25, has lived with vitiligo since she was 4 years old. She echoed the idea that you shouldn’t be addressing someone with vitiligo by drawing attention to it in this way—even if you don’t mean any harm. “Don’t treat someone with vitiligo as if they’re different from you. It’s not what’s going on on the outside. It’s what’s on the inside,” she tells Health. “It’s just our skin that’s different. We’re still the same person,” Perkins adds.
RELATED: 3 Vitiligo Symptoms to Watch For—Other Than White Patches of Skin
Don’t suggest products that can “help” someone with vitiligo “fix” their skin
“One of the most unhelpful comments I’ve gotten is being referred to a product that could cover my entire skin almost like a foundation for your entire body,” Marian De Vos tells Health. People with vitiligo sometimes cover their skin, and it can take much courage to decide to reveal it to the world and leave home without makeup on.
Perkins says she covered her vitiligo symptoms with makeup for years. “Eventually I just weighed the pros and cons of wearing it and not wearing it,” she says. She decided to stop using makeup to hide her vitiligo symptoms, noting that it was expensive to continuously cover her skin.
Crowder also tried to hide her symptoms by using makeup, “especially in high school because that’s when all the boys started coming out of the woodwork, and I realized how different I was," she says. "I started wearing tons of layers to cover it up [and] makeup." But eventually she learned to live without that safety net. “When I was 19 I found out there was a lot of people like me. It helped me come out of my shell,” she says.
People who have vitiligo go through enough debating whether or not to cover their skin and figuring out how to show their beauty to the world. They don’t need product recommendations from onlookers.
RELATED: How These 7 Women With Vitiligo Are Embracing Their Skin
Never refer to a person’s skin as “flawed” or “imperfect”
This should be pretty obvious, but you should never refer to someone with a skin condition as “imperfect." “My advice when dealing with someone who has vitiligo is to never refer to them [as] imperfect—do not even call them perfectly flawed or say they have perfect imperfections,” De Vos says.
“Our skin might look different, but it doesn’t mean it is imperfect," she adds. "It’s already a hard enough job to learn to love yourself when you look different, and when words like ‘imperfect’ or ‘flawed’ are thrown around, it can cause one to start doubting themselves. It’s frustrating when people refer to my skin as ‘imperfect’ when it’s taken four years to fully accept myself and [the] new skin I am in.”
Crowder feels similarly. “Everyone needs to know it’s not a flaw. It doesn’t hurt. It’s not painful,” she says. In the same way that you’d never refer to someone else’s condition as a “flaw,” you should definitely avoid this language when addressing someone with vitiligo.
RELATED: 6 People With Skin Conditions Share the Most Hurtful Things Ever Said to Them
Don’t mention newly visible spots
The change that occurs when someone has vitiligo doesn’t happen overnight. “In most cases, pigment loss spreads and eventually involves most of your skin. Rarely, the skin gets its color back,” according to the Mayo Clinic. If a friend or coworker has vitiligo, you shouldn’t point out that you've noticed a change in their skin. This is wildly unhelpful considering people with vitiligo are aware of the state of their own skin and some are still trying to come to terms with how their body is changing.
Crowder says that she remembers people “pointing out that they can see [patches of discolored skin] or new spots." Comments like these won't help the situation, she says. "It’s really hard to accept that your skin and your body is literally changing."
"Mine has actually spread to a much larger area of my body in the past year, so I've had close friends of mine who never noticed it before notice it and say, 'What's wrong with [your] skin?'" Chelsey Hamilton, a 25-year-old with vitiligo, tells Health. "It all comes from a good place. They don't mean to be hurtful. They were just genuinely curious and didn't know what the white patches on my hands were."
RELATED: I Have Vitiligo. Here's What It's Like to Live With This Rare Skin Condition
If you’ve just met someone with vitiligo, it might be best to stay quiet
You don’t need to make a comment when you meet someone with vitiligo. You don’t need to say anything about their skin, even if you are trying to be helpful. Not everyone is ready to embrace and acknowledge their condition, and if you make a comment about it to someone who isn’t ready to embrace it yet, it can potentially be harmful. “Every person with vitiligo is different," Crowder says. "Some people with vitiligo don’t like compliments because they’re still trying to accept it.”
Even if someone’s vitiligo symptoms are visible, the person might not want you to mention them. As a general rule, it's best not to comment on a person's body if you're not sure how that comment will land.
]]>Vitiligo does not necessarily need to be treated. Many people turn to makeup to conceal the changes in their skin. Others fully embrace their light patches. But for those who do decide to pursue vitiligo treatment, there are medical options that sometimes stop the disease from spreading—and may even restore some pigment.
“The purpose of treatment is to stabilize the disease if it’s active,” Henry W. Lim, MD, former chair of dermatology at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, tells Health. “The next step is to bring the color back.”
In general, your face is the most responsive to vitiligo treatment, followed by your body, says Dr. Lim. Lips, nipples, and the tips of your toes and fingers are reluctant to respond to any treatment.
“The unfortunate thing is that for a fair number of patients, nothing works great,” Daniel J. Aires, MD, director of dermatology at the University of Kansas Health System in Kansas City, tells Health. “But there are many treatments, and they can be helpful for some patients.”
RELATED: 5 Things That Might Cause Vitiligo
Topical treatments
One of the mainstays of vitiligo therapy is topical treatment, creams or ointments that go directly on the skin. Topical corticosteroids, for instance, can darken light patches of skin.
“Topical steroids can be very effective for local treatments, but there are still some potential side effects, particularly thinning of the skin,” says Dr. Aires. Blood vessels may show in areas where skin is already thin (like your face), and wrinkles may appear. You also shouldn’t use any type of steroids for long periods of time.
Tacrolimus (Protopic) and pimecrolimus (Elidel) are prescription topical medications in a class of drugs called calcineurin inhibitors that can also help treat vitiligo.
These usually don’t have side effects, says Dr. Lim, who is also past president of the American Academy of Dermatology. They work by stimulating your melanocytes (cells that make melanin) to produce pigment again. Although they’re more expensive than corticosteroids, they may also be more effective, especially if you use them in combination with light therapy (more on that below).
Some people get benefits from calcipotriene, a version of vitamin D. “The data is inconclusive” as to whether or not topical vitamin D will truly help people with vitiligo, Dr. Aires says. But it’s also not likely to hurt you and is “certainly something to consider,” he adds.
RELATED: 3 Vitiligo Symptoms to Watch For—Other Than White Patches of Skin
Phototherapy
Phototherapy or light therapy is the other long-standing mainstay of vitiligo treatment, especially vitiligo that’s more widespread. Phototherapy in the form of narrowband ultraviolet B (UVB) rays helps stimulate melanocytes to start producing pigment again. Sometimes the therapy is given with a drug called psoralens, which ramps up your sensitivity to light.
“You can expose the whole body or you can use targeted phototherapy, meaning using lasers to treat small areas of skin,” says Dr. Lim. “These are very safe treatments.”
RELATED: A Guide to Using Light Therapy for Psoriasis
Oral steroids
Oral corticosteroids may help slow vitiligo if it’s progressing quickly. Like other vitiligo treatments, it can be combined with UVB phototherapy.
“This is a bigger gun if the vitiligo is really widespread and very, very debilitating,” says Dr. Aires.
But there can be major downsides, especially if oral steroids are used for more than four or five months at a time. “There are potentially a lot of side effects, including weight gain, diabetes, and bone thinning—all kinds of things you’d really rather not have,” Dr. Aires says. “Certainly they can be used, but they’re something to think about very carefully.”
Generally, oral steroids aren’t effective for stable vitiligo, meaning vitiligo that is no longer spreading.
RELATED: How These 7 Women With Vitiligo Are Embracing Their Skin
Surgery
Surgery for vitiligo is a last resort, and only for people who’ve had stable disease for at least a year.
“There’s no reason to do this on people with active lesions because you’d be chasing after the disease,” Dr. Lim says. Also, “it’s not practical for very large surfaces.”
Surgery falls into two main categories. Skin-grafting is when you take skin from parts of the body that haven’t been affected by the disease and put them onto areas that have vitiligo.
Transplantation involves moving healthy melanocytes to areas of skin that have lost melanocytes and, therefore, pigment.
The surgery can sometimes cause side effects of its own, like scarring.
RELATED: 6 People With Skin Conditions Share the Most Hurtful Things Ever Said to Them
]]>“There’s a complete loss of pigment,” Henry W. Lim, MD, former chair of dermatology at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, tells Health. “In patients with fair skin, it’s not going to be all that noticeable, but with dark skin it’s very noticeable—and it can be quite bothersome.”
But vitiligo can affect more than just your skin. Other vitiligo symptoms include:
- Premature whitening or graying of your hair, eyelashes, and eyebrows
- Whitening on the inside of your mouth and nose
- Lightening of the retina of your eye
The bleaching is caused by destruction of melanocytes, the cells that produce melanin, which is the pigment that gives your skin and hair its color. No one knows exactly why the cells stop working, but experts believe it’s often related to autoimmunity. That’s when your immune system turns on your body’s own tissue and starts destroying it.
Many people with vitiligo also have other autoimmune diseases, commonly autoimmune thyroid disease, says Daniel J. Aires, MD, director of dermatology at the University of Kansas Health System in Kansas City.
RELATED: 5 Things That Might Cause Vitiligo
Early on, the symptoms of vitiligo begin gradually. Areas affected by vitiligo “are lighter than the surrounding skin,” says Dr. Lim, who is also a past president of the American Academy of Dermatology, “and as time goes by, it will become white.” The lighter-colored patches start as small, round areas that grow into different and bigger sizes. The centers of the patches may be white with your normal skin color around them. The borders are sometimes smooth and sometimes ragged.
How fast vitiligo progresses (and which parts of the body it affects) is highly individual. Although vitiligo symptoms can appear on any part of the body, the white patches often start on areas that have been exposed to a lot of sun—aka your hands, feet, arms, face, and lips. But signs of vitiligo can also appear on your neck, elbows, armpits, knees, and even your genitals, and once the spots appear, they almost never go away.
Very occasionally, says Dr. Lim, some people may have another vitiligo symptom: itchiness.
RELATED: How These 7 Women With Vitiligo Are Embracing Their Skin
Vitiligo symptoms also vary depending on which type you have. There are two main kinds of vitiligo: segmental, which is limited or localized, and non-segmental, which is more widespread. “Vitiligo can cover a very small percentage of the body’s surface, or it can be widespread and affect multiple different regions,” says Dr. Aires.
Almost all cases of vitiligo are non-segmental vitiligo. Usually the symptoms appear symmetrically on both sides of your body. The arms, backs of hands, elbows, knees, feet, and areas around body openings (like the eyes) are frequent locations for non-segmental vitiligo signs. “It does have a predilection for the orofacial area—eyes, nose, around the mouth,” says Dr. Aires.
With segmental vitiligo, the light patches of skin only appear on one segment of your body. But even if the vitiligo only covers a small percentage of your skin, if it’s on your face or another visible area, it can be hugely distressing.
Rarely, people have a third type of vitiligo—universal or complete vitiligo—which affects the whole body.
No matter the type of vitiligo you have, the disease can be active (meaning it is still spreading or growing) or stable (meaning there’s been no change in the course of a year). If you’re noticing any signs and symptoms of vitiligo, it’s worth bringing it up with a doctor. “I personally think if you have a loss of pigment,” says Dr. Aires, “it’s not a bad idea to see a health care provider.”
]]>"Vitiligo is a loss of pigment in the skin due to the destruction of pigment-forming cells called melanocytes," says Michele S. Green, MD, a dermatologist with Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.
The result is blotchy, uneven patches of white skin where the melanocytes have been destroyed. Vitiligo can affect not only your skin but your hair (including your eyebrows and eyelashes), the inside of your mouth and nose, and your retinas.
No one knows exactly what causes vitiligo, and there’s no cure for the skin condition either, but treatments are getting better. And the more we learn about the causes of vitiligo, the better treatments will become. Here's what we know about vitiligo causes so far.
RELATED: I Have Vitiligo. Here’s What It’s Like to Live With This Rare Skin Condition
Immune system issues
Scientists believe that autoimmunity plays a role in vitiligo. That's when your immune system mistakenly identifies a part of your body—in this case the cells called melanocytes—as foreign and starts to attack them. People with other autoimmune diseases, specifically Hashimoto's disease (which affects the thyroid gland) and alopecia (which makes hair fall out), are more likely to get vitiligo as well.
"Vitiligo is thought to be some autoimmunity resulting in damage and eventually killing of these cells," says Henry W. Lim, MD, former chair of dermatology at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.
In particular, experts think that a type of vitiligo called nonsegmental vitiligo may be autoimmune-related. Nonsegmental vitiligo only damages the melanocytes on one side of your body.
So far, though, the links between vitiligo and other autoimmune disorders is just an association. We can't say one causes the other. And treatment for another autoimmune disease usually doesn't help vitiligo.
"We routinely check for thyroid function in people with vitiligo," says Dr. Lim. "But treatment for Hashimoto's would not affect the vitiligo."
RELATED: 4 Skin Conditions That Can Signal Other Health Problems
Heredity
Vitiligo can run in families, but it’s actually not as common as you might think. "In the vast majority of vitiligo cases, there is no family history," says Dr. Lim, who is also past president of the American Academy of Dermatology. While many people wonder if vitiligo is hereditary, it's not yet possible to predict if you'll develop vitiligo based on family members with the condition.
Autoimmune diseases in general, however, seem to have a genetic component.
Physical trauma
In some people, physical trauma or stress to the skin like a sunburn or exposure to industrial chemicals seems to trigger vitiligo, or at least precedes it.
Vitiligo can appear exactly on the sites where there has been some kind of injury. "Exactly why that is the case is not known," Dr. Lim says.
RELATED: How These 7 Women With Vitiligo Are Embracing Their Skin
Emotional stress
Like physical stress, psychological distress also seems to play a part in aggravating vitiligo, as is the case with many other skin conditions as well. Again, this relationship isn't entirely understood.
What is known is that vitiligo, while not contagious or life-threatening, also causes significant emotional pain. "The effect is noticeable and quite disfiguring and, as you can well understand, it is psychologically very disturbing," says Dr. Lim.
RELATED: 6 People With Skin Conditions Share the Most Hurtful Things Ever Said to Them
Oxidative stress
Oxidative stress is an imbalance in certain types of compounds—free radicals and antioxidants—involved in different physiological processes. The imbalance can be caused by exposure to UV rays, pollutants, or other environmental factors. The areas of your body that are affected by vitiligo are known to be the most vulnerable to oxidative stress.
"We all get oxidative stress in our skin, but those with vitiligo are much more susceptible," says Dr. Lim. "This has been the greatest advancement in our understanding of vitiligo. We have a much better understanding of the molecular pathways of vitiligo and why these cells get killed."
This may pave the way for breakthroughs in treatment as scientists work on developing molecules that will block that pathway. "Significant improvements [in treatment] will be coming out in the next few years," Dr. Lim says.
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]]>There are two kinds of vitiligo: segmental and non-segmental. The former typically affects just one side or area of your body. The latter is the most common form of vitiligo, and the white, pigmentless patches affect both sides of the body symmetrically.
Experts don’t entirely understand why a person develops vitiligo—nor do they know what determines which type they get, Christel Malinski, MD, board-certified dermatologist at Benson Dermatology, tells Health. “Vitiligo is a multifactorial disease that can have both genetic and environmental causes, and we don't really know why some people get one form over another.”
Here’s what to know about this life-changing skin condition.
RELATED: How These 7 Women With Vitiligo Are Embracing Their Skin
Vitiligo symptoms
Patches of skin without color are the main sign a person has vitiligo. But the condition can also cause hair to turn gray or white in the affected areas.
Vitiligo can show up anywhere on the body, but patches are most typically seen on the face, hands, underarms, and genitals.
Vitiligo patches vary widely in size and number from person to person. There's usually no way to tell when the vitiligo will stop or how fast it’ll progress.
RELATED: 4 Skin Conditions That Can Signal Other Health Problems
Vitiligo causes
Vitiligo develops when melanocytes (cells that produce pigment) die or simply stop making melanin. The medical community doesn't yet know exactly why this happens, just that there are genetic and environmental factors at play.
Often, vitiligo is considered an autoimmune disease. “Particularly in non-segmental vitiligo, the melanocytes are attacked by the body,” Dr. Malinksi explains. “It's also associated with other autoimmune conditions in some patients, so a lot of times, we'll screen vitiligo patients for other autoimmune diseases. If you have one autoimmune disease, you're more likely to have another.”
In addition to having other autoimmune diseases or a family history of autoimmune conditions, you’re also more likely to develop vitiligo if other family members have it, if you've been exposed to certain industrial chemicals, or if you have melanoma, a dangerous type of skin cancer.
RELATED: Winnie Harlow Just Became the First Model With Vitiligo to Walk in the VS Fashion Show
How is vitiligo diagnosed?
Doctors can sometimes diagnose vitiligo just by looking at your skin (and hearing about your family history). But in other cases, it’s not as straightforward.
Sometimes a biopsy is needed, Dr. Malinski explains. “If the patient is very fair-skinned and the discoloration is not that obvious, a special light called a Wood’s lamp is used. The light basically helps to better see the color difference caused by the absence of melanocytes,” she says.
Vitiligo treatment
Vitiligo is a long-term condition, but it’s not life-threatening and does not necessarily need to be treated. Most treatments try to restore skin color or even skin tone, but they may not always work and could come with side effects.
If you do decide to pursue treatment, it might involve topical steroids, light therapy, or medication, Dr. Malinski says. There are also surgical procedures for vitiligo, including punch grafting, she says, “where you can take pigmented skin from one area of the body and transfer it to the area of vitiligo, and sometimes that skin will cause the vitiligo-effected skin to re-pigment.”
RELATED: I Have Vitiligo. Here's What It's Like to Live With This Rare Skin Condition
Coping with vitiligo
Many people who opt out of vitiligo treatment turn to cosmetics—foundations, concealers, etc.—to help cover up vitiligo if they’re really bothered by it. Others embrace their vitiligo and don’t cover it up—like model Winnie Harlow.
There’s one important step for anyone with vitiligo to take, however: sunscreen. The areas of skin that are affected by vitiligo are particularly susceptible to sunburns and sun damage because there’s no melanin to protect it. (There’s even a chance that sun damage may make vitiligo spread.) Sunscreen will also prevent tanning, and tanning can make affected areas more obvious.
In the end, there is no wrong or right way to cope with vitiligo. Only you can decide whether covering it up or celebrating it makes you feel the most confident and comfortable.
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]]>Scientists have not yet discovered the exact cause of the skin condition, but it is not contagious nor life-threatening. However, vitiligo can be life-altering in the sense that it can cause low self-esteem and may even lead to depression. The seven women below show that embracing their vitiligo and overcoming their fears has led them to lead more fulfilling and confident lives.
RELATED: These 8 Women With PCOS Are Embracing Their Beards and Body Hair
Jam Davis
45608471_341700563048309_735221437218698113_n . "Truth be told troubling times will always make me stronger, will continue [to] help me see real growth, and will show me no matter the circumstances I will always love myself! I will always accept myself…I’m different, I’m unique, and I’ve always accepted that since I was 8. I also want people with #vitiligo to know. YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL DON’T LET ANYONE TELL YOU OTHERWISE!”
Tanesha Brown
42634328_345268796046441_8700877843279725875_n : “You know we all come here with something flawed. Nobody is perfect, but having #vitiligo is like you can see everything on the outside. Everything is so visible of what’s 'wrong' with me but vitiligo isn’t what’s wrong, it happens to be everything right… I represent for those of you who feel counted out because you don’t fit into social “norms” or a universal standard beauty. You can admire someone else’s beauty without questioning your own. YOU ARE ENOUGH!”
Boitumelo Rametsi
46618662_301743133792778_222991094338839730_n . "It may hurt but IT'S OKAY.”
Winnie Harlow
"It was best for me when I started loving myself and other people could see that. I more so appreciate people loving the fact that I love myself and not just glorifying my skin or me," the model and activist told Teen Vogue. “That was something instilled in me from my family and my mother, but I lost it due to being bullied and things I experienced growing up. For me, it was more about finding that again and realizing that any opinions that were negative towards me were not worth my time or emotion," she said. "Know that feeling different is not wrong or negative. We are all different!"
Carissa Orr
36086217_469377173514906_6004047384235999232_n . "There is beauty in you and we are not defined by our skin. It’s a special part of us but only a piece. Rejoice in that piece as often and boldly as you can.”
Logina Salah
41816203_167759944170449_3757392734857171827_n , a Beverly Hills, California-based makeup artist, told Yahoo! Lifestyle. “But not long ago I started to accept myself as I am… It’s OK to hide what you believe to be a ‘flaw’ sometimes, but don’t let them get in and destroy your inner peace. Whomever is judgmental is an insecure person. Never build your self-esteem on his opinion and let his opinion get into you and shape who you are or how you act.”
Tiffany Taylor
42320786_171605490424291_1989779220470064294_n !"
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]]>Case in point: one comment Harlow received after she recently uploaded a photo of herself wearing metallic blue shorts but no shirt, revealing the white splotchy skin on her torso and arms. She looked as fierce as ever, but that’s beside the point.
“Who’s the designer of the shirt?” a fan wrote. Uh, what shirt? You mean her skin?
And Harlow had the best response: “God..?” she replied. You tell ‘em, girl.
Vitiligo certainly isn’t designed by any high-end fashion label, but the uniqueness it can bring to a person’s skin is so beautiful that it looks like it could be.
In reality, vitiligo is a disorder that causes pigment-free patches of skin to appear randomly all over the body. It happens when the cells that normally produce pigment, melanocytes, are destroyed. The cause of vitiligo is unknown, but for most people, the condition manifests before they turn 30. Some experts believe it may be an autoimmune disease.
As funny as Harlow’s response was to that user’s comment, it’s understandable that someone who hasn’t been exposed to vitiligo would be confused by it. That’s exactly why we need to follow Harlow’s example and do our part to raise awareness.
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]]>Vitiligo is a skin disorder that causes pigment-free patches of skin to appear randomly on the body. It happens when the cells responsible for skin pigment, melanocytes, are destroyed. The cause of vitiligo is unknown, but some experts believe it might be an autoimmune disease—meaning the immune system attacks the body’s pigment-producing cells.
RELATED: I Have Vitiligo. Here’s What It’s Like to Live With This Rare Skin Condition
The 24-year-old Toronto native made her industry debut on America’s Next Top Model in 2014. Since then, she’s walked countless runways, appeared in Beyoncé’s visual album Lemonade, and become a role model to her 4.6 million followers on Instagram. The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, however, was always her dream.
“It’s the pinnacle of my career,” Harlow told Vogue in a September interview. “I told anyone [who] asked, ‘I want Victoria’s Secret!’”
She also said she wanted to use the opportunity as a chance to defy cultural beauty standards. “Why is there a stigma around being different when we’re all different?”
RELATED: Skin Conditions, Explained
She’s right, and that’s something that can be hard to remember if you're living with a skin condition. Chelsey Hamilton, who was diagnosed with vitiligo at age 17, know all about this. In a previous Health story, she explained her experience.
“I was stunned by my diagnosis. Whenever I'd had a medical issue before, I could just take a pill or see another doctor to make it better… To even out my skin tone, I globbed concealer on my face and slathered tanning lotions all over my body… My self-confidence plummeted. I felt ugly,” Hamilton wrote.
Eventually, Hamilton learned to accept her white patches, and thanks to the example of people like Harlow, others with skin conditions can find the strength to do the same.
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]]>Rowdy is no ordinary pup. He has vitiligo, and works as a therapy dog with the American Vitiligo Research Foundation.
Vitiligo is a disorder that causes loss of pigmentation in patches of skin—and in Rowdy's case, fur. The cause of the incurable condition, which affects between 0.5% and 1% of the human population, is unknown, though many experts believe it is an autoimmune disease.
According to the website Rowdy's owners, Tim and Niki Umbenhower, created for him, Rowdy started to develop white fur around his eyes at age 12. Within a year, the patches grew into bigger circles (his fans have described him as a "reverse panda"), and his belly and toenails also turned white. Rowdy was eventually diagnosed with vitiligo by a vet dermatologist, who confirmed his condition through a biopsy.
"He's our own little celebrity around town," Tim said in a 2015 interview with Fox 12 Oregon. "Everybody loves to stop us and ask us what we did to him and if we painted it on there."
As an ambassador for the American Vitiligo Research Foundation, Rowdy visits children affected by the same pigmentation disorder that's made him so famous (@white-eyed-rowdy has more than 55,000 followers on Instagram). According to his owners, he has "built some relationships with kids with vitiligo who may have also been bullied because of it."
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Even before he began his work raising awareness about vitiligo, Rowdy led a remarkable life. According to his website, he was once accidentally shot in the leg by a police officer in a case of mistaken identity. But that wasn't his only near brush with death: After drinking contaminated pond water, he needed to have his stomach pumped. Rowdy has also had surgery on both ears, a toe removed, treatment for a torn ACL, and more.
Well into his golden years now, Rowdy requires frequent therapy and medications. (His family has set up a GoFundMe page where you can contribute to his medical expenses, so he can continue his work with kids for as long as possible.) But Rowdy's ailments haven't dampened his spirit. "He's declining a bit," his owners told The Dogist. "He's got some dementia, senior bladder, and barks for no reason. He still acts like a puppy sometimes, too. And he still smiles."
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