Living with vitiligo from early childhood, Laura Gregory from Britain believes that no one should ever feel the need to hide. Laura has donned many hats; a model, a professional dancer, a business woman and a beauty queen having won many pageants.
Now a successful flight attendant Laura lives with her partner in Sheffield where she is learning to love herself a little more every day while inspiring others through her journey.
By becoming a pageant winner not once, but multiple times, Laura has shown us that true beauty lies within.
According to Laura, beauty is truly subjective and as long as one believes in themselves and has self-love and confidence they can enter and maybe win the pageant.
If I have the choice, I would wish not to have vitiligo, but now that vitiligo is a part of my life, I would prefer to deal with it in a positive way rather than cursing it.
Her journey with vitiligo
For Laura, her first spot appeared at the tender age of 12. She noticed a spot on the stomach which gradually spread to other body areas. As the patches started to grow, her family took her to the local general practitioner who ruled it out as a fungal infection. But a second opinion from a dermatologist confirmed it as vitiligo.
During schooling, her classmates would make fun of her assuming that her patches are caused by bad spray tan or kind of birthmarks.
To avoid people’s awkward stares and their distasteful comments, she started covering the spots with makeup.
I was afraid of showing my ‘real’ self to the world and used make-up as a shield.
She didn’t let vitiligo stop her from chasing her dreams
Laura, even though had to face the brunt of discrimination because of her skin, never truly let Vitiligo affect her as a person.
She grew into an intelligent and hardworking person.
She also became a professional dancer, where she had to surround herself with flawless bodies and the constant pressure of being perfect. But Laura never caved in and with her fighter spirit, she continued to lead her life with sincerity and optimism.
She even opened up her own business where she taught dance.
During all those years, vitiligo continued to spread extensively to her visible body areas, but she didn’t let it stop her from participating in beauty pageants.
She entered her first pageant at the age of 22 wearing makeup to camouflage the spots.
Contesting in the pageants helped Laura in regaining her confidence and feeling good about herself. Spending time with other contestants and understanding the jury mindset, she realized that there is no one definition of being beautiful and beauty comes in all shapes, sizes and shades (skin conditions).
She finally decided to quit hiding behind her makeup and embrace her true self.
While participating the Miss Scuba UK competition in 2016, she was to pose in a bikini and with extensive vitiligo spots across the body, she decided to flaunt her patches than trying to cover them.
Her family, friends and partner supported the decision and she took a big leap in the direction of accepting her body as it is.
This was the beginning of her journey to find herself and inspire others to stand up for themselves.
She wanted to set an example for other women that one can be beautiful even with flaws.
Till the age of 27, I dealt with insecurities owing to my patchy skin. Now as it spreads, I want to accept it and show other women that they can be themselves without any need to hide behind the makeup. After all, beauty comes in all shades and we need to embrace the skin we are in.
Her journey as a beauty queen
For Laura, she always wanted to be remembered because of her talent and not her skin.
Taking her belief to the next level, she started entering beauty pageants.
So far she has entered a number of pageants and came first in three of them.
Laura now participates in events without any camouflage makeup.
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For her, being truly beautiful doesn’t come by affording the best hair extensions or the most sparkly evening gown. It comes through self-love and being proud of oneself.
In her words, during competing, she would forget about her vitiligo and what people are thinking and just have a good time enjoying all the attention she receives. It has helped her greatly get comfortable with her skin.
Beauty is more than just a flawless skin and anyone with vitiligo or any other skin condition can enter a pageant and do well just like me.
Makeup or no makeup, it’s perfectly alright both ways
Advocating for normalization of vitiligo as she has stopped covering the spots, Laura calls for equally respect those individuals who prefer to camouflage the patches. It’s a personal choice of the individual and should be respected either way.
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