INSIDE EDITION spoke to one model who is not letting a rare skin condition stop her from showing the world the true meaning of beauty.
There's something obviously different about one beautiful fashion model.
Chantelle Brown-Young has vitiligo, a rare skin condition that causes patches of her skin to turn white.
She told INSIDE EDITION, “I have it on my hands. I do have it in little circles and dots on my knees, my feet.”
The vitiligo started when she was a child.
“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.
She said, “Kids called me all kinds of mean things. 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.”
Today the disease covers 40 percent of her body. She says she struggled with her self-esteem and thought she was ugly. But everything changed when a local fashion photographer discovered her on Facebook.
She posted her modeling shots on Instagram, and as luck would have it she caught the eye of supermodel and creator of America’s Next Top Model, Tyra Banks. Now, she's set to compete on the new season of show, premiering Monday night on The CW.
She said, “It was hope for me to be on the show. I never thought it was ever going to happen, but it did!”
The 20-year-old refuses to be defined by her disease. A woman truly comfortable in her own skin.
