Chantelle Brown-Young

Chantelle, who is also called Winnie Harlow aka Chantelle Winnie, is undoubtedly an oddball in the sequined beauty and fashion industries where flawlessness is nurtured and celebrated. She suffers from the skin condition called vitiligo, a disorder she’s had to endure since childhood that gives her facial and body skin two distinct colour tones- a light shade of chocolate, and white. Pop star Michael Jackson also suffered from the same condition. This skin disorder is a result of a malfunction of the immune system. It affects less than 0.5 per cent of the population, but its impact on Chantelle’s life has been profound.
“While growing up, I was teased, ridiculed and bullied and called names like cow, zebra and all manner of other disparaging slurs”, the beauty revealed via a video recording prior to the media blackout. “The continuous harassment and the despair that it brought on my life was so unbearably dehumanising that I wanted to kill myself”, she disclosed.
Chantelle’s mom, Lisa Brown who lives outside Toronto but who has roots in Trelawny and Clarendon in Jamaica told The Gleaner in an exclusive story that her daughter had more than her fair share of challenges while growing up due to the vitiligo. “Chantelle is a sweet, beautiful, outgoing teenager and while she was being abused, I didn’t stop praying that God would help me to find a way”, she said.