Bullies made Winnie Harlow suicidal but now Lewis Hamilton’s stunning girlfriend loves the skin she’s in
LEWIS HAMILTON is on to a winner with his model girlfriend Winnie Harlow, whose rare skin condition makes her the most recognisable face in fashion.
The Canadian model suffers from vitiligo, which produces the distinctive pale areas around her mouth, torso, hands and knees.
The patches, which are due to a lack of melanin, led to Winnie being bullied throughout school.
Cruel tormentors slung jibes at her which eventually made her contemplate suicide — but now the 22-year-old beauty is having the last laugh.
Winnie said: “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.
“The world is looking at me now. I either let the haters affect me or I step my money up.
“If one day I’m all black I’m still a model. If one day I’m all white I’m still a model.
“I am not my skin. I am a model with a skin condition.”
The 5ft 9in beauty now has a bevy of A-list pals. She has dated Mariah Carey’s ex- husband Nick Cannon, hangs out with Drake and starred in Beyonce’s Lemonade video.
To top it off, she has been spotted twice with Brit bachelor Lewis — at the GQ Awards and then at Kanye West’s Yeezy Season 4 fashion show.
Formula One champ Lewis, 31, has become the most sought-after bachelor around since splitting with singer Nicole Scherzinger, 38, in February last year.
He is rumoured to have dated Kendall Jenner, 20, Gigi Hadid, 21, pop stars Rihanna, 28, and Rita Ora, 25, and Justin Bieber’s ex, Victoria’s Secret model Barbara Palvin, 22.
Former Pussycat Doll Nicole put the brakes on their relationship over Lewis’s unwillingness to commit. But could Winnie be the one to take his playboy ways down a gear or two?
Like Lewis, who took up karate classes at the age of five to defend himself against school bullies, Winnie is a fighter.
Born Chantelle Brown-Young in 1994 in Toronto, Winnie was raised with her two sisters by single mum Lisa Brown, who worked as a hairdresser. Her father Windsor lives in Jamaica and runs a car repair business.
Winnie was not born with vitiligo — the same condition Michael Jackson had which affects about one per cent of the world’s population. She was diagnosed aged four.
As a little girl she did not realise she looked any different, but around the age of eight her unique appearance suddenly struck her.
Kids called me a cow and mooed at me. I remember sitting by my window, wishing upon the stars that my skin condition would go away.
She started a new school and girls would avoid her, wrongly fearing they might catch her condition.
Winnie later revealed in Cosmopolitan magazine: “Kids called me a cow and mooed at me. I remember sitting by my window, wishing upon the stars that my skin condition would go away.”
The taunts continued — and at high school the teasing turned into violence.
Winnie said: “In my junior year a group of girls jumped me, starting a fight. I got suspended, then started skipping class. I dropped out of school when I was 16, 17.”
In a later YouTube video about her condition, Winnie talked about how she contemplated suicide.
She said: “The harassment and the despair that it brought on was so dehumanising that I wanted to kill myself.”
Winnie’s mum later said: “While she was being abused I didn’t stop praying that God would help me to find a way.”
And after leaving school, Winnie realised modelling was to be her path. While working in a call centre, a journalist contacted her on Facebook to say she was “strikingly beautiful”.
Then YouTube personality Shannon Boodram got in touch with Winnie and asked to shoot her for a music video.
Requests for work came rolling in. But modelling agencies would not sign her and told her to focus on becoming a make-up artist.
Winnie said: “It was an indirect hit aimed at my skin.” To this day she refuses to use skin dye, make-up, UVA light therapy, medicines or surgery to alter her appearance.
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It was US model Tyra Banks, 42, who gave Winnie her big break when she recruited her for the 21st season of TV’s America’s Next Top Model in 2014.
Tyra said: “Her skin breaks down barriers of what is considered beautiful.”
Winnie was the second wannabe model to leave the show and finished sixth on a later series for eliminated contestants. She has since said she would not go on the series again — but the impact the programme had on her career is undeniable.
She was inundated with offers from world-renowned photographers such as Brit Nick Knight, who has photographed Lady Gaga, Kate Moss and Cara Delevingne.
Winnie has appeared in fashion magazines including Dazed, Ebony, Glamour and Vogue Italia. She has modelled for Spanish brand Desigual and starred in Diesel’s Spring/ Summer 2015 campaign.
Last Christmas Winnie got her best job yet — a part in Beyonce’s Lemonade video alongside tennis champion Serena Williams, 34.
Beyonce wants you. Can you fly out tomorrow?
Winnie said: “I was contacted by their (Beyonce’s) team a couple of weeks prior but my agent didn’t get back to them because they wouldn’t tell us much about the project.”
But a day before the shoot took place, Beyonce’s pal called Winnie and said: “Beyonce wants you. Can you fly to New Orleans tomorrow?”
Winnie didn’t hesitate. She made her cameo in the song Freedom, which is set in a plantation, and got to chat to Beyonce, 35, afterwards.
Winnie said: “I wanted to thank her for acknowledging me as a strong black woman and continuing to empower us all.”
Beyonce is not the first big name Winnie has rubbed shoulders with. She regularly hangs out with Hotline Bling singer Drake, 29, who is also from Toronto. He calls her the 6 Goddess — in reference to the city’s area phone code, 416 — and mentioned her in his song Know Yourself.
Winnie said: “I’m friends with Drake’s producer, 40. I met everyone through him.”
In September last year Winnie sparked romance rumours when she went out to dinner in Beverly Hills with Mariah Carey’s ex, comedian Nick Cannon, 35.
Like Lewis, who got his first Grand Prix win at the age 22, Winnie has already achieved great things.
She is not just a pretty face, and regularly campaigns about vitiligo and speaks out on body confidence issues.
So watch this space — this could be a power couple to challenge Jay Z and Beyonce.
What is vitiligo?
DOCTOR Anjali Mahto, consultant dermatologist and spokesperson for the British Skin Foundation, says:
The cause of vitiligo is not fully understood. Many think it’s a disease where the body’s immune system destroys a type of skin cell called melanocytes.
If that happens, a person cannot produce melanin, which makes the skin colour, leaving them with white patches.
The disorder affects all races and both sexes equally. However, it is more noticeable in people with dark skin.
About a fifth of sufferers have family members who also have the condition.
The most commonly affected areas include the hands and face, folds such as the armpits or groin, around the eyes, belly button, nose and moles.
Sunscreen of SPF 30 or higher is advisable as areas of vitiligo burn easily.
Treatments include steroid creams, ultraviolet light and laser therapies.
Sometimes vitiligo goes away by itself. There is no cure but treatments can slow it down in some cases.
Around half the people who are affected will get it before they are 20.
The condition can leave a person depressed by the look of their skin.
Some sufferers disguise vitiligo with long-lasting camouflage make-up.