The mother of two turned model Reham Soliman from Egypt is advocating vitiligo acceptance through her journey

The 34-year-old Egyptian model with vitiligo, Reham Soliman, is challenging the rigid beauty standards every day with her confidence and style.

With widespread vitiligo patches on her face and body, her friends feel that she is the look-alike of Meghan Markle. Being so comfortable in her skin, this comparison doesn’t bother her and she is a rising star inspiring people across the world to accept their ‘imperfection’ and live a happy life.

Not just the people with vitiligo, but with other health challenges such as weight issues would tell me that they have drawn inspiration from my confidence that they too can live confidently and happily with their ‘different’ looks.

Onset of vitiligo and initial few years of struggle

The first spot appeared on her neck when Reham was 14 years old and gradually it progressed; today it covers almost 60% of her body.

Growing up, she didn’t want to look different than others of her age and dealing with people’s stares and comments was a big deal for her.

She was called names like cow and clown in the school.

In the university, some students didn’t want to shake hands with her or sit beside her fearing that the vitiligo is a contagious condition. They would deliberately change their path to avoid seeing or greeting her.

This is really heartbreaking as to how insensitive everyone was being around her. Certainly, the low level of social awareness about vitiligo in Egypt to blame for. Being a young woman crippled with poor body-image she was not confident enough either to be vocal about the innocence of her patchy skin.

People, including strangers, would often stare at her and ask whether she is a burn victim, or if she doesn’t know how to use makeup properly.

I would be repeatedly reminded and made conscious of my looks throughout the teenage and early 20s. It really affected my self confidence.

Gradually she started keeping a distance from social events and gatherings that further cemented the stigma in her mind.

These incidents made her extremely conscious all the time and she decided to conceal the spots with makeup. Covering it up and hiding became a part of Reham’s daily routine, even though it took a toll on her mental health because she was living a dual life- one with makeup and one without. On the top of that, the masking process used to take a significant amount of time everyday which was quite exhausting.

Reclaiming the freedom and confidence 

After becoming mother to her second child, she realized that she just can’t continue to live like this, spending too much time on wearing the makeup, and her routine is bound to change.

The motherhood was her first priority and it was not possible to spare too much time for makeup along with that.

The time management was not the only reason.

She was kind of fed up living two lives and finally ready to just not care about people’s opinions.

Also, she wanted to set an example for her children and mould their young minds in the right shape and direction. She wanted to teach them to accept those who look different. It means, it was time for her to stop concealing her difference and accept and treat it as normal.

A challenging but highly rewarding journey

It was indeed a difficult journey as she started facing the world with her original patchy skin.

It was not easy to remain unfazed by people’s stares and distasteful comments. But her determination and the support and love from family and friends made it easier.

The body positivity activists in the social media further boosted her confidence and she was like ‘if there people can do, why can’t she?’

She found their content really inspiring and now, she is an Instagram influencer herself posting positive content that can inspire others.

As time passed, Reham learned to accept her authentic self and transformed into a strong advocate of accepting one’s natural beauty and unique appearance.

Now, it was a 180 degree change in her personality from a shy and hesitant woman to a confident and proud one who is more assertive in her approach.

Vitiligo is not a weakness for her anymore, rather it has become her #1 strength that makes her stand out from the crowd and attractive.

It has been six years since the gorgeous Reham accepted her skin condition and stopped concealing it with makeup.

The beginning of a new chapter- Reham as a model

Her confident personality with unique looks has a perfect recipe for a successful modeling career.

Reham’s friends and family always used to tell her that she looks a lot like Meghan Markle with vitiligo. Though she didn’t pay much heed to such comments, but lately she has realized that she definitely has that look and charisma to become a model.

When Reham got the opportunity to work as a model and was contacted by a modeling agency, she could hardly believe it. For the very first time, the reality was so beautiful to her.

The modeling agency wanted to feature her for a skincare brand which was furthermore pleasantly surprising to her.

A skincare brand wanting me to model for them implies a big step towards normalization of vitiligo. It means that they don’t see vitiligo as an issue or drawback.

This incident turned the tables and gave her a huge confidence boost.

For the first time in a while, Reham was extremely happy as she was attracting people’s attention for the right reasons.

Since then, Reham has been modeling and encouraging people to accept and embrace their uniqueness with confidence.

She has worked for Elle magazine and that in itself is a huge achievement. She truly deserves every bit of success that has come her way.

So far she has been exploring and enjoying the modeling opportunities except a few occasions.

In our such ‘bad’ project, she realized that the name of promoting diversity, the ad agency was actually classifying people with different appearances and it was so insulting to be labeled, categorized and cornered.

So, she pulled out of that ‘demeaning’ assignment immediately.

The strong willed Reham’s morale is unshaken due to those occasional incidences and she is becoming a more and more powerful force for a positive change with every passing day.

Reham Soliman as a vitiligo acceptance advocate

Today, Reham is one of the most prominent voices for vitiligo acceptance and some people call her the Winnie Harlow of Egypt.

She is enjoying her new found freedom and confidence and at the same time, she is instilling self-love in people with vitiligo and other body image related issues.

She just can’t’ ask for anything more.

It is all due to her confidence, authenticity and self-love that helped her to stand out and grab the opportunities that she was exposed to.

She is extremely thankful to everyone who stood by her side and helped her to overcome all the barriers that she came across.

The way she is using her own skin condition to inspire others with vitiligo to break the shackles of hesitation and shyness to live life to the fullest is simply incredible.

Reham is in fact extremely overwhelmed by the positive response she gets from everyone. She is a role model for many and she aspires to inspire more and more people each passing day because she truly believes that everyone deserves support and love, despite any issues that they might be facing.

 

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