In Photos: Kyle Kuzma's girlfriend Winnie Harlow puts herself alongside Michael Jackson in powerful World Vitiligo Day tribute
Winnie Harlow and her rise to fame has been inspirational for many people across the globe dealing with vitiligo. “King of Pop” Michael Jackson also dealt with the skin condition, one of the reasons that MJ used gloves to camouflage the skin condition. Now people are putting Harlow at the same level as Jackson when it comes to vitiligo.
On “World Vitiligo Day,” Kyle Kuzma’s girlfriend shared a powerful message on her social media to her followers around the world.
“I’ve heard when people think of vitiligo, they think of Micheal Jackson & Me,” Harlow wrote in the caption. "But Vitiligo is so much more complex than just 2 people.”
Winnie Harlow was featured on the Vogue cover alongside Saudi Arabian model Shahad Salman.
She also shared the story of Shahad Salman, who was happy that she looked like Harlow because of her skin condition. As more and more people with vitiligo are coming forward, Harlow thinks it will generate a more powerful message across society and help dismantle the older conventions of beauty standards.
Winnie Harlow has made more people with the same skin condition accept that they are as beautiful as anyone and also helped people change their mindset.
However, Winnie Harlow is also very careful when it comes to her identity as a person. She wants her childhood trauma to be her own story, not the story that others use to dilute her personal identity using her skin condition.
Winnie Harlow doesn’t want people to define her by her skin condition
While Winnie Harlow continues to fight for the normalization of vitiligo, she refuses to be identified by her skin. The supermodel wants the world to move away from the conventions regarding her skin condition.
In a conversation with Vogue Arabia earlier this year, Winnie Harlow said that it was “insulting” for her to be defined by her skin.
“I’m not ‘suffering’ and how dare people assume that I am,” she said. “Trauma from when I was seven years old is no longer relevant and my skin shouldn’t be the basis of every story. It’s so strange to me that people don’t understand how insulting it is to define me by my skin.”
Harlow has been the leading voice against stereotyping vitiligo. She has been an inspiration for people suffering from skin disorders and has helped them to look at themselves in a completely different light. She has established herself among the top models in the beauty industry not because of her “suffering” but because of “beauty and talent.”
British photographer Nick Knight played a big part in Winnie Harlow’s rise in the modeling industry. He complimented her natural talent in front of the camera and how she moved in front of it. It was since that moment that Harlow decided to pour all she had into her modeling career.