How ANTM’s Winnie Harlow Inspires Us To Remain Positive

Posted on 06 November, 2021
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By Anonymous

Winnie Harlow

There are two things Winnie wears proud: her hair, and her skin. It isn’t everyday you see a Top model with Vitiligo, so she does command our attention. Chantelle, otherwise known as Winnie Harlow, has been making a splash on America’s Next Top Model with her Natural Beenie, and inspirational tidbits on Instagram. She has a skin disease called Vitiligo which causes the cells responsible for pigmentation to die (similar to what Michael Jackson had).

She had a tough childhood, as she showed signs of the disease at the age of 4. Winnie has been teased, called names (Zebra and Milky), and has been beaten up. Though not easy, I am sure that she has accepted herself, and recognizes her beauty for what it is. She has doesn’t wish to be something she is not. She says:

“I could take off all the brown skin, and just be white. But I cannot take off all the white skin, and just be brown.”

I wanted to use Winnie for a bit of inspiration because in the beauty world we get so judgmental, finding the negatives in all the pictures we see, instead of the positive.

All day long we share pictures of beautiful women who look different from us, but that share is something we have in common, and that is hair. So what if her make up isn’t to your liking? Or if her edges aren’t perfect like yours? Before saying something negative, maybe we should start seeing the beauty in our sisters.

Maybe we can see that beauty is not standard, but different, and that when we pass judgment on one another, even clothed in ‘smart’ or sarcastic comments, it doesn’t help the #struggle.

The more I look at Winnie, I realize that her spots are perfectly placed. She gets more gorgeous the more you look at her picture. She has that in common with many of us; all we have to do is look at the picture through positive eyes.

So when you want to type something crazy, try doing the total opposite of what your brain tells you to do. Half the time you do not sound smart if that is what you are going for; you just seem unhappy.