There wasn't anyone who was specifically taking me under their wing. I definitely looked up to people, though, one major person being Naomi Campbell, of course. That's, like, a given.
— Winnie Harlow
Funnily enough, of course I've always thought B was amazing, but I've never been, like, 'Beyhive status'... until actually meeting her. I would honestly drop anything I'm doing to work for her again. Not just because of who she is but because of my experience with her filming for two days.
I think we need to take a step back and realize what the real issues are - it's not being from different places or being different.
Some rules are there for a reason - but it's one thing to have a rule that protects and another to have rules that stifle.
I get comments saying that I'm a leper, I control how my skin changes, I bleach my skin, my skin's burned. None of those are true.
I loved reading magazines about the entertainment world.
It's amazing what a little encouragement can do.
I liked to hang around my mom's beauty salon, watching her do hair.
I wasn't born with vitiligo. It developed when I was 4 years old. My skin changed dramatically over the next few years.
My parents separated before I was born, but they remained friends, so I was close to both sides of my family, with siblings and cousins and godparents. I've had the same best friend since grade six.
I think you have to feel your best by yourself. I do think it's important to have a solid friend that you can turn to, though - one that you can vent to.
I didn't have a problem with myself or my skin. I had a problem with the way people treated me because of my skin. They tried to define me.
I don't really talk about 'ANTM,' although I'm very grateful for it, as it was the platform that allowed me to catapult to where I should have been.
I was never raised as the daughter with vitiligo or the granddaughter with vitiligo or the cousin with vitiligo. I was just Chantelle.
People have black skin, people have brown skin. I have both.
The more people see, the more they want to see.
I feel like I pull inspiration from everyone, and I feel like I'm honored and grateful that people feel that they can pull inspiration from me, be inspired by me. But I definitely don't think I'm a role model. I'm not someone to be imitated.
I wasn't part of the BeyHive before I met her, but after my experience working with her, meeting her, I'm a die-hard fan.
I feel like I have so many amazing opportunities because of my immigrant mother, my immigrant grandparents.
If one day I'm all black, I'm still a model. If one day I'm all white, I'm still a model.
Even as a little girl, my mom never wanted me to watch BET, but when I was at my grandparents' house, and my older cousins were there and I could watch it, I was infatuated with the idea that I could one day be a DJ or the host of a show.
I am happy with my skin, and I'm proud of my skin, which is why I wear it so boldly. But if a job wanted me to, say, try a smoky eye and cover the vitiligo around my eye, I wouldn't have a problem with that.
With vitiligo, my skin is sensitive in extreme temperatures.
Growing up in the greater Toronto area, I was a happy kid. I was my mother's first child, surrounded by admiring godparents and cousins.
Social media is a great way to get discovered in the industry because it's free, it's worldwide, and everyone's on it - a very powerful combination.
I was a lucky kid, and I grew up connected to a lot of people.
Growing up, I didn't have a lot of real friends, and the people I was friends with, I've grown apart from - they were frenemies more than anything.
People sometimes ask when I learned to love myself. But that was not the issue.
Things were fine in elementary school, but when I moved schools in grade three, not only was I the new kid, I was the new kid with the skin condition.
I loved myself. And with that, opportunities start to fall into my lap. And I thank God for all of them.
I am the underdog, and I want to prove that one can follow one's dreams despite all the flaws and setbacks.
The worst thing I've done while sad is sit in defeat. That's very unhealthy. The best thing to do is dust yourself off and try again.
For me, honestly, the term 'role model' means for someone to be imitated, and I don't feel like anyone is to be imitated.
I've never been a die-hard Beyonce fan. I always thought she was inspirational and beautiful.
You think of floating on a rock in space as so alien, but that's exactly what we're doing.
My skin's not a normal sight.
It's weird to me for people to stare at me, because I feel like I'm normal. I don't see what there is to stare about.
A journalist in Toronto named Shannon Boodram saw my Facebook page and told me I was 'strikingly beautiful.' She shot a YouTube video of me, and it made a hit, grabbing thousands of views. She said the camera loved me and that I should be a model. I had never thought about modeling - it just hadn't seemed possible.
I discovered that I was 'different' in the third grade. As the new kid at school, I was trying hard to find my footing. I thought I had made friends with a couple of girls - until they stopped talking to me. When I confronted them, they said their mothers had warned them to stay away because they might catch my skin condition.
I don't remember my skin changing, but I do recall feeling deeply loved by my family.
I faced challenges as a kid, but who hasn't? A lot of people have experienced far worse. I was bullied, sure, and it was painful at the time. I even quit high school to get away from it. But I've never been the kind of person to let my past predict my future.
My confidence was more of a fake-it-until-you-make-it kind of thing. I tried to build my own confidence and not rely on the opinions of others.
I had to relearn how to love myself by forgetting the opinions of everyone else and focusing on my opinion of myself.
I remember sitting by my window, wishing upon the stars that my skin condition would go away. I wondered, 'Why me?'
I always loved the spotlight, just not the negativity.
When I got older, it got harder because when kids get older, they get meaner, so I went through a lot of bullying and people calling me, like, 'zebra' or 'cow,' so it was really hard growing up.
Vitiligo is just another difference, like freckles, big hair, tiny ears Everyone has differences.
Winnie Harlow is my alter ego like how Beyonce refers to her stage name as Sasha Fierce.
