Chantelle Brown-Young is not your typical model and doesn't plan to be.
Chantelle Brown-Young is challenging the fashion industry's definition of beauty - and winning.
She has vitiligo, a rare skin condition that causes patches of her skin to turn white.
Read: Doctor Explains Model's Vitiligo Condition
After catching the eye of Tyra Banks, she shot to fame and is now the face of Desigual. She has modeled for Sprite, graced the cover of Ebony magazine and is even sparking controversial copycats, who are using make-up to look like her.
But the 21-year-old's success comes after years of bullying, she told INSIDE EDITION.
“I have it on my hands. I do have it in little circles and dots on my knees, my feet," she explained in an interview last year.
The condition started when she was a child, she said.
“I first got it when I was four years old, but I don't think I understood that I had vitiligo until I was like maybe in middle school, and that's only because that's when bullying started for me,” she said.
The bullying persisted all throughout middle school and high school.
“Kids called me all kinds of mean things," she said. "They called me ‘cow, zebra.’ They asked me if they should milk me - all kinds of horrible, horrible mean things that a kid at that age should never have to hear.”
She now has vitiligo across 40 percent of her body. She said she struggled with her self-esteem and thought she was ugly.
But everything changed when a local fashion photographer discovered her on Facebook. And, as luck would have it, she caught the eye of supermodel and creator of America’s Next Top Model, Tyra Banks.
She said: “It was hope for me to be on the show. I never thought it was ever going to happen, but it did!”
She now models under the name Winnie Harlow.
Elle magazine even named her one of the 12 women who are redefining beauty.
These 12 women are redefining beauty in 2015 http://t.co/eFiNPdYwqd pic.twitter.com/6qE34W0mq9
— ELLE Magazine (US) (@ELLEmagazine) August 20, 2015
On her social media pages she gives her fans inspiration through her messages of positive self-esteem.
In recent weeks she has come under attention for sparking a debate about blackface.
Some of her Caucasian fans have applied makeup to look more like her before posting images online. But some critics argue that they are putting on blackface.
The model responded on Instagram:
The 21-year-old refuses to be defined by her disease and proves to be a woman truly comfortable in her own skin.
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