Vitiligo: "I hid myself with foundation so that my spots couldn't be seen"

Tiger Lily, a model with vitiligo, tells us about her journey and her relationship to beauty. Discover his touching testimony.

It is enough to stop at the expression "to stain" to understand how much they can be depreciated. Tiger Lily is a 32-year-old woman with vitiligo. This progressive depigmentation of the skin, which she does not like to define as an illness, affected her a few years ago when she was still in high school. What leave heavy psychological repercussions on this young woman who took almost 3 years before putting a word on her ailments. Since then, she has traveled a path towards self-acceptance, and above all the acceptance of this particularity of skin that bothered her so much. So she made it her job. Having become a committed model, she campaigns for vitiligo to be better known and more visible. On the occasion of World Vitiligo Day, the make-up brand Make Up For Ever, partner of the French Vitiligo Association, highlights her and other young people in an awareness campaign. Finally ! “It appeared in 2007 when I was 17.18 years old. It was mainly my mother who knew about it because at the start, it was behind my back. At first, I didn't realize it. It started to be embarrassing especially when it happened on the visible parts: the arms, the face... What we couldn't camouflage too much. This is where I started putting on foundation. For several years, I saw doctors who did not understand what I had. I have seen dermatologists who have never seen this before. Some called their colleagues and they took my picture… I felt like a freak. I found that incredible. It's very difficult to live with. It took me about 3 years before I knew what it was. A friend of mine did some research and found a health center where I was first told about vitiligo. The doctor I saw offered me creams but he explained that it didn't guarantee anything because I was at a very advanced stage.

I have seen some shoddy work out there. Sadly, most people don't know how to write a properly formatted screenplay. They do it off the cuff.

— Robert Haviland Thu Aug 20 03:34:49 +0000 2015

It's very difficult to have something that no one else has. Before 2014 and the start of advertising campaigns (note: Desigual with the famous model with vitiligo Winnie Harlow), I had never seen people with vitiligo. I think they all wore makeup to hide, like me! No one in my family has one that I know of. It really stopped me from living. In the street, I lowered my eyes because I was very complexed. In the summer, I wore long sleeves and makeup all the time. It was a chore because I hid myself with the foundation so that my spots could not be seen. At the time, I was happy to be able to do it. If it can help people, so much the better, but I think you have to do the groundwork and not be a slave to it. In 2015, I discovered personal development, which helped me a lot, as well as social networks. With #vitiligo, I discovered that I was not alone! I had to learn to be a new person, relearn how to live. Today I fight for self-acceptance. I really did a lot of work on myself. It is no longer a complex so I no longer feel the looks as aggression. I got used to people staring at me everywhere I go, but I don't take it badly anymore. Now I can go to the pool or the sea. I allow myself to live fully. I feel completely free today. I am learning to take care of my skin which is very sensitive, more and more over the years… I have to be careful with the products I apply. When I go on a shoot, for example, I bring as many things as possible. In summer, I cannot expose myself to the sun, I must have sun protection and apply it very regularly. I learned to accept. I don't want to hide anymore. Now I don't wear foundation anymore but it's nice to put on lipstick, to put makeup on my eyes… What's a shame is that many years have been stolen from me because I don't didn't know what I had. This is why it is very important for me to do work in which I am visible and in which I can speak. At least for future generations. We have to do this educational work so that people know about vitiligo. It's not the plague, we're not Martians! It's just aesthetic. The French association has no visibility and that is why it is important to talk about it with the Make Up For Ever campaign. I decided to call myself Tiger Lily because she is a flower like me. She has spots. She is what she is. She really represents me. »