Model Winnie Harlow calls out a UK publication for saying she’s a “vitiligo sufferer”

Winnie Harlow is a model, and a very established one at that, walking in shows like Tommy Hilfiger, Marc Jacobs and H&M, and landing features in British Vogue. She isn’t “suffering” from vitiligo. She’s just a model who happens to have it.

That’s the point Harlow made clear on Instagram earlier this week, when she called out the London Evening Standard for writing that she is a “vitiligo sufferer.”

“I am not suffering!” Harlow wrote. “If anything I’m succeeding at showing people that their differences don’t make them who they are! All our differences are a part of who we are, but they don’t define us!”

Harlow is part of a successful group of models with skin disorders who are actively redefining standards of beauty in the fashion industry, alongside the likes of Diandra Forrest and Shaun Ross, both of whom are hugely successful and happen to have albinism.

So no, her skin isn’t causing her any suffering — at all.

As Harlow continued on Instagram: “Do you see me suffering? The only thing I’m suffering from are your headlines and the closed minds of humans who have one beauty standard locked into their minds when there are multiple standards of beauty! The beach was damn fine that day, nothing to suffer about!”