Curtis McDaniel’s journey from a shy teenager to a bold Vitiligo model

The super confident Curtis McDaniel is a vitiligo awareness and acceptance advocate doing his bit to normalize this innocent skin condition and reduce the social stigma around it. Hailing from New Jersey, USA, Curtis is a real estate entrepreneur and a model.

His journey is the epitome of coming back stronger from the perils of social abuse and stereotyping.

While internal illnesses are still not much tabooed by society, conditions that have their symptoms shown externally on the body prove to be a source of prejudice and negativity from people.

Curtis was just 11 years old when first noticed a white spot on the wrist that would not go away.

Her mother took him to a dermatologist and it was diagnosed as vitiligo, the same skin condition that affected Michael Jackson and turned his skin white.

Being a proud black American, he got freaked out because he loved his black skin and those white patches would be so prominent on his skin.

As he grew older, these turned into larger patches and appeared on many of the visible body parts including the face.

As a young child, it was difficult to swallow that he looked different than others and he just couldn’t do anything about it.

His teenage and school life was quite traumatic. He went through a lot of bullying and name calling. People around him gave him nicknames, laughed, or cringed at him when he walked past.

He also encountered situations where he was sidelined or left out of a social group because of the difference in his looks.

He saw the change in people’s perspective toward him and lost the friendship of some of his peers.

Kids younger than him would often get scared and cry looking at him.

They used to call me zebra, cow skin, giraffe, and what not. Some people would keep a distance from me that it’s contagious. Girls would make awkward facial expressions seeing me and turn their faces away. When things would get intolerable, I got into fight with those bullies and even got kicked out of the class a few times.

I remember once a few young kids ran away seeing me as if they saw a monster. All this made me really bitter and angry.

Similar to the psychological impacts of bullying, Curtis too experienced excessive anger growing within him and the denial to accept his looks.

He almost stopped smiling and would be angry and upset all the times.

He would always like ‘why me?’ because he was the first one in his family, friends and even the whole school to have this skin condition.

He once punched into the mirror angrily when he noticed a new spot coming on the face.

He became defensive about his looks and found it difficult to accept his skin the way it is.

His insecurities and fear stemmed into prolonged depression for almost 5 years.

For some time, he used makeup to conceal the spots, but it made him more insecure and worried because he didn’t want people to know that he is using something to cover his original skin.

Eventually, he stopped using concealers as he didn’t feel comfortable with that.

How things changed for good?

At the age of 17, he got a change of heart after an emotional talk with his dad. He became religious and stopped looking at vitiligo as a drawback or a curse. Rather, he would find it uniquely beautiful.

He started believing that God has given him this gift of unique skin so that he can inspire people to embrace their lives.

He found his lost confidence in accepting the skin as it is and looked at it as uniqueness rather than a difference.

Once I got closer to Jesus Christ, my life started to unfold. I started to understand the power of words. So I stopped letting the words of other people hurt me. And I started to look in the mirror and say positive things to me like ‘my skin is beautiful’, ‘I’m a very attractive guy’, ‘I always smile and everyone likes me’ and similar positive affirmations.

Gradually, it changed his mind set and he became pretty comfortable in his skin. Now, he has transformed into a smiling, bold personality from an angry young man.

He has been featured in the documentary series, MTV True Life where he got the opportunity to educate and aware the society about vitiligo and how the society’s non supportive attitude can bring so much trauma in the life of a person with vitiligo.

Also, he has been featured in a number of magazines as a male model with a difference.

He never planned to get into modeling?

He never planned to become a model, rather it just fell into his lap. One fine day he causally shared a selfie on Instagram and it went viral as a famous albino model reposted that. He received numerous phone calls from photographers interested in clicking his photos and that’s how it started.

As I surrendered to Jesus, good things started happening in my life. Can you imagine a shy guy who hates to get clicked would become a model and inspiration for others? It’s the miracle of having faith in God.

Family support has been instrumental in his incredible transformation

His near and dear ones always stood strongly by him. He was born and brought up in a supportive family and was very close to his dad. His father passed away due to pneumonia, and ever since his death, Curtis’s mom has been the pillar of strength in his life. During these uncertain years of his life, it was his family who fought for him and gave him the courage to pursue his dreams.

Curtis McDaniel is a proud vitiligo awareness advocate

He is extremely happy to use such an impactful and incredible platform like modeling to motivate people to feel confident and worthy.

Also, Curtis uses his social media presence to make the society aware of vitiligo and put an end to discrimination and social negativity.

Through his work and campaigns, he has been a source of hope, courage, and inspiration for thousands like him and he feels so satisfied for that.

His message to the fellow vitiligo community

According to Curtis, self-love is the ultimate trick here. Once you start loving yourself for who you are, you will notice people automatically getting attracted to you.

My de-pigmentation has increased over the years, but now, I rarely receive any uncomfortable stare and I tend to brush them off immediately. Mostly, I receive appreciations from people as they find me attractive for my unique skin and confidence. You know, skin is so materialistic, it’s the heart inside that matter. But the path to this realization goes through loving yourself unconditionally.

 

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A post shared by Curtis J McDaniel (@__curtismac)