Mariah’s life story of embracing vitiligo and finding beauty in her flaws

Mariah Perkins from Maryland, US tells anyone with vitiligo or any other skin condition to love and embrace the skin you are in and experience the ultimate happiness.

It is disheartening that we live in a world where outer appearances are above everything else. If you don’t match up to the typical beauty standards, you have to conceal your ‘flaws’ to be accepted by others. Often in the process of being accepted, we forget to embrace ourselves and accept our authentic self.

Even though it’s a harsh world, we do find some exceptions in people like Mariah Perkins, who smash stereotypes with their confidence and enchant us with their self-love journey.

At the age of 11, Mariah noticed a tiny white spot on her finger and showed it to her mother who brushed it off as a minor issue. But to their surprise, the white spots started spreading to other parts of the body and the small spots combined together to form big white patches.

When spots started appearing on the face, her mother took her to a doctor but he didn’t seem too concerned. So, she was taken to a skin specialist and got the vitiligo diagnosis.

Getting to know that vitiligo is neither dangerous nor communicable was good news. But, the more she found about it, the more she got worried that it’s a life-long condition and the skin de-pigmentation can continue to affect her body in coming times.

By the time she was 13, she noticed those spots on her arm, her nose and the corner of her eyes were completely de-pigmented and pale.

As Mariah eventually grew older, the white patches clumped up together to form a whole area of pale white skin. At the present time, most of her face is de-pigmented but there are patches on her arms, hips and waist.

Mariah’s life as a teenager – the school days were hard

During teenage, it was a struggle because she looked different from others due to patchy skin. Emotionally, it was hard to realize that she was the only one with such a skin condition when everyone else was ‘normal’.

The young Mariah felt like a victim in the claws of the beauty standards and she did everything she could to fit in. The quest for a ‘normal’ skin tone and appearance took a toll on her body image and self confidence.

My teenage life was hard and I never felt pretty or cute. I just tried to fit in.

Things only became harder for her as time passed.

The loss of skin pigment was quite a slow but constant process.

Seeing her de-pigmented face, some insensitive people would accuse her of doing bleaching and other treatments to turn her skin white and disguise her African American identity. On the other hand, if she would conceal the vitiligo patches with makeup, people would call her out for unnecessarily caking her face with makeup at this young age.

I didn’t want to be known as the girl with the patchy skin. At that young age, it was easier to wear the makeup than to constantly have to explain what the condition was to people.

So she started wearing makeup at the age of 13 when no other girl in her class started doing that. She would spend around 45 minutes every day caking up her face with layers of foundation and concealers to make it look normal. Makeup is never bad, but to wear makeup to conceal your ‘flaws’ was so un-natural.

It was an easy way out (wearing makeup) to evade people’s stares and questions, but somewhere deep down it further cemented the negative body-image.

She stopped leaving the house without makeup and would not reveal her original skin to anyone.

She would not come close to others or hug anyone fearing that the makeup might get messed up; also looking in the mirror frequently to make sure the makeup was intact.

She once went to a sleepover at a friend’s place and slept with the makeup on and woke up before everyone to touch upon that. She would go to the college auditions and dance rehearsals with the makeup on and it was really not comfortable or convenient in any way. In short, her “coping up” was really intense as it was a round the clock struggle; she was trying to keep a ‘secret’ from the world.

All this stress and restlessness might have further accelerated the de-pigmentation process because stress triggers autoimmunity like anything.

For Mariah, going to the university proved to be the game changer

During schooling, she would focus on studies to evade thinking about vitiligo and being a straight-A student, got into the Towson University to study Sociology and Criminology. 

Initially she thought that it would be scary to face new people and explain the skin condition to them. But, it actually helped her greatly regain the self-confidence and coming out of her shell.

It was a mature and inclusive environment and people were non-judgmental to her ‘different’ skin. Her friends at the University accepted her original patchy skin and encouraged her to go without concealing the vitiligo more often.

For the very first time in a while, Mariah felt that vitiligo is not a big deal for people around and they are ready to accept her as she was. It helped her make a swift progress towards self-love and self-acceptance.

She gave up on the ‘requirement’ of applying a foundation in a gradual manner, one step at a time as she builds confidence. Initially, she would go hanging around with friends and shopping without makeup and then she gathered courage to go natural to the university campus and her part time job well.

Now, she rarely receives negative comments. For those having an idea about vitiligo, they either ignore it and treat her as normal or would even compliment and encourage her advising to take inspiration from the supermodel Winnie Harlow.

Around 3 million people in the the US have vitiligo, but it is still an unknown skin condition for many.

Sometimes, people would come enquiring about my skin condition, adults and kids both. The gaze in their eyes didn’t depict that they intend to demean or humiliate me. It was just completely innocent and they really had no idea about Vitiligo.

There was a time when she would blame vitiligo for everything wrong in her life. But, as her confidence grew, she realized that more than people’s behaviors, it’s her own ‘over-thinking mind the bigger culprit.

Today she loves herself just the way she is and vitiligo only makes her stronger.

Her journey from a shy little girl to a confident model and professional dancer

Dancing has always been her first love for this criminal justice graduate.

She has been dancing since she was a small kid and whenever got some free time, she doesn’t mind shaking the body to enhance her moves.

Now that she has realized her self-worth and not holding back anymore, she is exploring all the interesting career options that she always wanted to, including modeling and dancing.

Mariah is a professional model and worked for various brands, including Vogue, Coca-Cola and Calvin Klein.

Mariah as a vitiligo role model and advocate

When she was a young little girl, there was not much awareness or role models to look for. The rise and success of beautiful vitiligo models like Winnie Harlow and Amy Deanna has inspired many young girls like Mariah to feel good about themselves.

In fact, she has entered the world of modeling following the footsteps of Winnie.

The inspiration she draws from Winnie is precious and she wants to inspire others in the similar fashion. There are very few people in this world who can gather up the courage to speak about their journey. But once they do, there is no going back. Thousands of people draw motivation from them and that in itself is a great feeling.

Everything happens for good. Now I think I have gone through all this for a reason so that I can help others and make it easier for them.

I want to become a source of inspiration to young girls with vitiligo that we are beautiful and lovable with or without vitiligo. The skin condition does not and should never define who we are.

Her family is her pillar of strength

When the going gets tough, the family’s support and love makes it easy. She is the first one in the family to develop vitiligo but for her family, she is the same Mariah as vitiligo has made no difference. She received the un-conditional love from the parents all through the journey. They have always encouraged her to become the best version of herself and take pride in her achievements and accomplishments.

Her message to young people with vitiligo struggling to find the ‘someone special’

In her teenage, she was super conscious about her looks and didn’t have the courage to explore dating opportunities.

She feared that nobody would like her totally if she revealed her true skin.

At that time, I would be uncomfortable with boys around and just didn’t feel pretty or good looking.

In her opinion, every girl or woman with vitiligo should look for a guy who would accept her 100% in her natural look without covering the spots. After all, you can’t hide or change your original appearance from that person.

P.S. Do check out Mariah’s Instagram account to enjoy her amazing content and killer moves.

 

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