After getting diagnosed with vitiligo at the age of seven, Erika spent most of her life spotted and alone, suffering. She largely felt misunderstood whenever she tried to express her feelings. Result? She kept everything to herself and let the emotions bottled up. She assumed she didn’t need anyone else to be happy, and her vitiligo would magically one day “fix itself.” Erika says she couldn’t have been more wrong about handling it all by herself.
After launching Living Dappled in 2016, Erika Page started connecting with the vitiligo community, and her life was changed. From phone calls to photo shoots to conferences – every chance Erika got to connect with others with vitiligo changed the way she not only saw the condition but herself. “I credit these connections as giving me a lot of the confidence I needed to stop my 7-year streak of hiding my skin with head-to-toe tanner and embrace my skin and now my hair,” the founder of Living Dappled told us in an email exchange.
To help give others the same support and encouragement that Erika received, she and two other women with vitiligo started a new membership network for vitiligo as part of Living Dappled – the Dappled Darlings Community. While Living Dappled will continue to be a blog and resource for anyone with vitiligo, Dappled Darlings will offer those who want more connection and support a chance through monthly virtual meetups, annual workshops, and private Facebook group.
While ‘exclusive access to monthly virtual meetups’ will enable members to chat with peers, ‘complimentary access to expert-led bi-annual workshops’ will provide tangible tips and advice on living happily with vitiligo. As of now, the new membership network speaks to women with vitiligo but is open to anyone. You can learn more about Dappled Darlings at https://livingdappled.com/membership.
PS: Erika Page was earlier profiled by Unite For Vitiligo under our Vitiligo Crusaders campaign and has been named one of the most Influential Vitiligans in 2019 and 2020.
