Winnie Harlow has vitiligo, an autoimmune skin condition she was diagnosed with at age four. The distinctive light and dark patches across her face and body are caused by her immune system attacking the cells that produce skin pigment. Rather than hiding the condition, Harlow built one of the most recognizable modeling careers in the world around it.
What Vitiligo Does to the Skin
Vitiligo causes the immune system to destroy melanocytes, the cells responsible for giving skin its color. Specifically, a type of immune cell called a CD8+ T cell identifies melanocytes as threats and kills them, leaving behind pale or white patches where pigment used to be. The attack is precise: it destroys pigment-producing cells while leaving surrounding skin cells completely unharmed. This is why vitiligo creates such sharply defined patches rather than a gradual fading.
Once a patch loses its melanocytes, the skin in that area can no longer produce pigment on its own. The immune attack also creates a feedback loop. The attacking cells release a signaling molecule that recruits even more immune cells to the area, which is one reason vitiligo patches can spread over time. Globally, about 0.36% of the population has been diagnosed with vitiligo by a physician, roughly 28.5 million people worldwide.
Why Harlow’s Patches Look the Way They Do
Vitiligo comes in two main forms. The non-segmental type, which is far more common (affecting about 83.5% of vitiligo patients in clinical studies), causes patches on both sides of the body in a roughly symmetrical pattern. This appears to be the type Harlow has, based on the distribution of her patches across her face, torso, and limbs. The less common segmental type tends to affect just one area of the body and often stabilizes after a couple of years.
Non-segmental vitiligo is unpredictable. Research published in the Indian Dermatology Online Journal found that 80 to 100% of people with non-segmental vitiligo experienced reactivation of their condition regardless of how long it had been stable. This means the pattern on Harlow’s skin has likely shifted over the years, with existing patches expanding and new ones appearing. There’s no reliable “quiet period” after which someone with this type can assume the condition has stopped progressing.
Growing Up With Visible Skin Differences
Harlow has spoken openly about how difficult her childhood was. Other children called her “cow,” “zebra,” and other slurs throughout her school years, from students of all backgrounds. She’s said that one of the hardest parts of growing up with vitiligo was the sheer lack of information about it. Nobody around her could explain what was happening to her skin, which made the bullying even harder to process.
Her experience reflects a well-documented pattern. Clinical research shows that about 35.8% of people with vitiligo experience anxiety, and rates of depression are elevated as well. The visible nature of the condition creates a cycle: people feel pressure to cover their patches with clothing or makeup, which reinforces the idea that something is wrong with their appearance. Studies have found that some patients think about their condition constantly throughout the day and feel self-conscious even when their patches are concealed. In certain cultural contexts, vitiligo has been grounds for social exclusion, damaged marriages, and disrupted intimate relationships.
For Harlow, growing up as a Black girl with progressively lighter patches added layers of complexity. The contrast between affected and unaffected skin is more pronounced in people with darker skin tones, making the condition harder to conceal and more likely to draw attention.
How Modeling Changed the Conversation
Harlow’s career breakthrough came through America’s Next Top Model, where her appearance caught the attention of both the fashion industry and the public. What made her trajectory unusual wasn’t just that she modeled with a visible skin condition. It was that she refused to treat it as something to work around. Her vitiligo became central to her brand rather than incidental to it.
Since then, she has walked runways for major fashion houses including VETEMENTS and Marine Serre, attended the CFDA Fashion Awards, spoken on panels at Vogue’s Forces of Fashion in Germany, and appeared on the covers of international fashion magazines. In fall 2023, she received the United Nations Association in Canada’s Global Citizen Award for her work challenging beauty norms and advocating for diversity and female empowerment.
Harlow has also partnered with pharmaceutical company Incyte to share her personal story and increase public understanding of vitiligo. She’s described this kind of visibility as something she wished she had growing up, a public figure who could normalize the condition and make it less mysterious to people who had never encountered it.
Vitiligo Has No Cure
Harlow’s skin hasn’t been “fixed” or treated to look the way it does. Vitiligo is a chronic condition with no cure. Treatments exist that can partially restore pigment in some patches, including light therapy and topical medications that calm the immune response locally. A newer class of treatment that targets the specific immune signaling pathway involved in vitiligo has shown promise in clinical trials, with some patients seeing meaningful repigmentation, particularly on the face.
But treatment results vary widely. Some areas of the body respond better than others, and repigmentation is often incomplete. Many people with vitiligo choose not to pursue treatment at all, especially if their patches are stable or they’ve made peace with their appearance. Harlow has never indicated she’s trying to reverse her vitiligo, and her public stance has consistently framed the condition as part of who she is rather than something that needs correction.