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Amy Deanna becomes CoverGirl’s first model with vitiligo. 5 Key Takeaways

overGirl’s model with vitiligo
Picture courtesy: H E C T O R P A R I S ®

Very often, we see mainstream beauty brands presenting an image of perfect, flawless skin. Thankfully, this seems to be changing as many industry giants are finally waking up from the unrealistic standard of beauty. CoverGirl’s latest ad for its TruBlend foundation, featuring Amy Deanna, is the first step in this direction.

One of the world’s leading cosmetic brands has picked black model Amy Deanna as the first CoverGirl with vitiligo who seems to be reiterating the brand’s tagline – “Why try to blend in when you can choose how to stand out?”

In the commercial we see Deanna letting her dual tones stand out rather than blending them into a uniform shade. Amy applies foundation to even out her vitiligo patches around her chin, leaving the depigmented skin around her eyes. Many vitiligo fighters got teary-eyed seeing this commercial. Who can blame them? They never thought to see the day when their condition would be celebrated like that.

Amy Deanna in Making

Amy Deanna, from Texas, started losing pigmentation during her teenager. She was scared when the white patches started spreading. She could try to cover it up or depigment her skin wholly which is what Michael Jackson is thought to have done.

Deanna initially heaped beauty products to hide the patches. It didn’t work. Then one day, a pep talk from her sister changed everything. Though uncovering vitiligo was scary at first, she finally gathered the courage to be the best version of herself. She just applied foundation, not to hide vitiligo, but to enhance what she now saw as marks of beauty. While some people made rude remarks about her skin, she kept her head up. She started to share her photos on Instagram regularly, spotlighting the variations in skin tone on her face, neck, and upper body. When CoverGirl representatives found her on Instagram and asked her to take part in their campaign, she made history and became the first model with vitiligo to be featured in the CoverGirl commercial.

Key takeaways from the commercial

Amy is rewarded for her confidence and unique beauty with a campaign with one of the biggest beauty brands in the world. She is sharing the importance of embracing your own uniqueness on a global platform. For there to be so many of vitiligans and so little representation, it’s truly groundbreaking and empowering. Here are the key takeaways:

  1. Falling in love with yourself is so important as we often find ourselves trying to ask others ‘what is it that you like about me?’ Be kind to yourself.
  2. Look in the mirror and tell yourself that you are beautiful. Love the way your feet look. Love your hair, your wrist, your hands.
  3. Find beauty and confidence in your own skin — no matter what is perceived as “normal.”
  4. Pushing yourself to perfection is just not realistic. Walking out into the world, the way you are can help you embrace and love yourself.
  5. There’s something about believing in yourself and being confident. Practice it.

What the future holds for vitiligo models?

While Amy is making strides as CoverGirl’s first model with vitiligo, the showbiz has a long way to go to ensure all women are reflected. We, as a society, have just taken a baby step towards the inclusiveness, which can challenge unrealistic beauty standards within the beauty industry as well as in humanity.

There are still people who don’t know what vitiligo is. With more role models like Winnie Harlow and Amy Deanna, we hope to see things moving in the right direction. After all, inclusivity is important—not just for people of different races and ethnicities, but also people of all shapes, sizes, and colors.

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