Winnie Harlow, diagnosed with the autoimmune condition vitiligo at age 4, often felt isolated during her childhood, telling People, “When I was a kid, I felt like I was the only person in the world with vitiligo.”
The condition causes loss of skin color in patches. A major challenge for Harlow growing up was the lack of available information and research, which left her feeling she had no control over how to manage her condition.
Today, the 31-year-old model says she has learned to embrace living in her skin.
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Recently, Harlow announced her partnership with the biopharmaceutical company Incyte, hoping to make information about vitiligo widely accessible and thus “demystify” the condition.
“The ability to share knowledge is really powerful for me,” Harlow stated, adding that now there are “options and choices” for those living with the condition.
The Cay Skin founder told Byrdie, “This partnership with Incyte is allowing the conversation to be open about the choices that people have with vitiligo today that I didn’t have when I was growing up, and I think that’s amazing.”
This theme is explored in two videos created as part of the partnership.
Harlow described the experience of creating the short films as “a dream come true,” explaining to Essence that she got “a blast from the past” by revisiting her childhood bedroom and confronting past misunderstandings.
The films feature her meeting her younger self, played by Zoe, which Harlow viewed as a form of “closure.” She noted that “Little Winnie… is so much more confident than I was at her age.” For Harlow, returning to these moments helped her “unfold what you didn’t realize you were feeling,” rather than simply burying difficult life experiences.
Vitiligo, an autoimmune disorder, manifests as pale or white skin patches due to the targeting of pigment. As Harlow points out, many are unaware that vitiligo affects people of all races and skin tones.
Vitiligo isn’t just a skin issue; people with it need to see a skin doctor regularly because they have a higher chance of getting other immune system diseases.
However, Harlow expressed that she is confident in who she is, because of her Jamaican heritage and the strong support from her family, especially her mom and grandmother. Their belief in her helped her overcome bullying and feel safe.
“Regardless of having vitiligo, kids deal with bullying all the time,” she told People. “And so being able to have those safe places, be it your friends, your family, and being able to be yourself is really pivotal to shaping a strong, confident child.”
Harlow’s career in modeling was driven by a desire to provide the representation she lacked as a child. She is committed to publicly embracing her own identity and encouraging others to find comfort and self-love, as she shared with People.
“I really love that through my career I’ve been able to just be myself, and through being myself, it allows other people to feel comfortable being themselves,” she remarked.
“When it came to modeling, I feel like every opportunity that I was able to accomplish felt so much more powerful because it was trailblazing. It was a door that hadn’t been opened before, and so it made everything feel so much more rewarding,” she continued, adding, “To be able to be that person for others is a gift, because I didn’t have that, growing up.”
The Jamaican-Canadian model has become a dominant force in the industry, according to Byrdie. She has appeared on high-profile covers and in campaigns, in addition to walking the most prestigious runways for top-tier houses such as Marc Jacobs, Tommy Hilfiger, and LaQuan Smith.
Harlow’s vision for the future is that vitiligo will be so normalized and accepted that it will cease to be the defining “headline” of someone’s life. This idea, she explains, is the foundation of her forthcoming children’s book, Simply Winnie.
Though the model finds seeing differences in children’s books “amazing,” but stressed the need to go further and “make difference the norm.”
She told People, “I wanted to create a world for kids where they could see things that were different and be aware of things that are different without it being the main storyline,” she says. “Because I think that is the next step in representation and inclusivity is not making things the token or the headline.”
