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7 Celebrities Who Have Spoken Out About Vitiligo
Living with a chronic condition can be challenging, and managing it while in the public eye can be even more so. Still, many celebrities choose to speak out about their health experiences to raise awareness of conditions that are personal to them — including vitiligo.
Vitiligo is an autoimmune skin condition that causes patches of skin to lose pigment, according to MedlinePlus. Vitiligo may appear at any age, but the average onset of symptoms is during your mid-twenties, and pigment loss generally progresses with time.
“Vitiligo can make you feel helpless, which is one of its most unsettling aspects,” says Alpana Mohta, MD, a board-certified dermatologist based in Jaipur, India, and medical advisor for BetterGoods.org. “The first thing you can do is regain control of your knowledge. The more you study about vitiligo, the more equipped you will feel to deal with it.”
Yet the impact of vitiligo may extend beyond physical symptoms. As the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) points out, people experiencing vitiligo may also develop low self-esteem that can impact their quality of life. “This condition does not differentiate between creed, boundaries, or ethnicity, and given the inherent visibility of this skin disorder, self-esteem is often compromised,” says Sanober Pezad, MD, a board-certified specialist in integrative and holistic dermatology who’s based in Dallas.
But these days, awareness around vitiligo is increasing and stigma is lessening — perhaps in part because of public figures who speak out about having vitiligo themselves.
“Celebrity testimonials highlighting the noncommunicable nature of vitiligo and the psychosocial impact it has on the individual will greatly help in fighting against the possible stigmas that vitiligo is associated with,” says Dr. Pezad.
Read on to learn about seven celebrities living with vitiligo, and their experiences and advocacy around this skin condition.
Michael Jackson
As perhaps one of the most famous celebrities with vitiligo, Michael Jackson is also the most commonly searched-for person with this skin condition online, according to the University of Massachusetts. Reports suggest Jackson first experienced vitiligo symptoms in the 1980s, when he was in his mid-twenties. But due to stigma surrounding vitiligo at the time, Jackson didn’t officially disclose his condition publicly until a 1993 interview with Oprah, as AP News reported at the time.
Like many other people experiencing vitiligo, Jackson first used makeup to camouflage light spots developing over his naturally dark skin tone. As his condition progressed, he reportedly used depigmenting creams, which can remove the rest of your skin’s natural pigment. According to the American Academy of Dermatology Association, depigmentation is a gradual, permanent treatment that is rarely used.
Winnie Harlow
Winnie Harlow is a fashion and runway model with vitiligo who competed on the 21st season of America’s Next Top Model. She’s also an inclusive beauty activist who uses her platform to help raise awareness about the condition.
Rather than conceal her skin with clothing or makeup, Harlow reduces stigma around her condition and continues to be featured in major fashion magazines. She was even the first person with vitiligo to participate in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, as she shared on Good Morning America.
In a 2022 op-ed published in Cosmopolitan, Harlow recalls how she began experiencing vitiligo at age 4. A traumatic photo shoot that left her with a severe sunburn inspired Harlow to launch her own line of sun-care products for all skin tones, called Cay Skin.
Karl Dunbar
As a former professional football player and current football coach, Karl Dunbar has used his platform to help spread awareness about vitiligo. Speaking to ESPN in a 2012 interview, Dunbar shared that his symptoms of vitiligo appeared when he was a teenager, and he faced stigma throughout his childhood and teenage years. But as he told Fox Sports in a 2011 interview, once he started playing football at Louisiana State University, he found people cared more about his athletic ability than his skin.
Now as a defensive-line coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Dunbar embraces his appearance with a positive attitude. “I’m just like a leopard or a tiger,” Dunbar told Fox Sports. “I have my spots and I’ll be happy with them.”
Jon Hamm
Perhaps best-known for his portrayal of Don Draper in the TV show Mad Men, Jon Hamm is another celebrity known to have vitiligo. In a 2015 interview with GQ, Hamm quipped that the stress he experienced while filming Mad Men had triggered the onset of this condition.
Indeed, stress has been widely studied as a possible trigger of autoimmune conditions like vitiligo. According to MedlinePlus, stress, exposure to certain chemicals, and ultraviolet radiation may all be possible triggers for individuals who are genetically predisposed to vitiligo.
Michaela DePrince
On her professional website, ballet dancer Michaela DePrince details her early experiences in Sierra Leone, where she was orphaned as a young child and then abandoned by other family members due to her vitiligo. Later, a family in the United States adopted her and not only embraced DePrince’s love of ballet, but also who she was inside and out.
Now a second soloist with Boston Ballet, DePrince hopes to be a role model for aspiring ballerinas of all skin colors, as she told Self magazine. She’s doing that by publishing an autobiography about her journey from her early childhood experiences to ballet stardom, starring in a 2021 film adaption of Coppelia, and appearing in Beyoncé’s music video for “Freedom.”
“In the beginning, I really hated having vitiligo," she says. “When I first had to do a piece on stage without a full bodysuit, I wanted to cover it up. Now, I realize it’s okay. This is who I am, and I’m not going to do that.”
Hedvig Lindahl
Hedvig Lindahl is a Swedish soccer player and another celebrity using her platform to raise awareness about vitiligo. She remains actively engaged on social media about vitiligo, including on Facebook, where she describes how she started experiencing symptoms at age 5 and eventually lost all her skin pigment by age 20.
According to a 2009 interview with Vitiligo Zone, Lindahl noted she doesn’t consider herself an official vitiligo spokesperson, but simply accepts it as a natural part of who she is. Her advice for people living with vitiligo? “Talk about it in public. Tell people that you have condition, be proud to be different, don't feel ashamed. ... Take a step out in the light of society and be proud, instead of hide and feel bad.”
Krizz Kaliko
As a rapper, singer, and songwriter, Krizz Kaliko has chosen to place his experiences with vitiligo directly into his work. Case in point: His 2008 debut album, Vitiligo, which peaked at 167 on the Billboard Top 200. On the title track, he reflects on the difficulties he faced growing up with vitiligo and his accomplishments since.
One unexpected positive, though: In a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" thread, Kaliko notes that his vitiligo “made me more popular than everybody else, because nobody else looked like me.”
Kaliko has been upfront with his vitiligo symptoms on his face, which is a common area of the body for this skin condition to first develop, per Mayo Clinic. Patchy color losses around your hands and body openings, like your eyes and mouth, are also common first symptoms.
Ross Radusky, MD
Medical Reviewer
Ross Radusky, MD, is a practicing board-certified dermatologist at the Dermatology Treatment and Research Center in Dallas. Originally from New York City, he graduated summa cum laude from the City University of New York and then received his MD from the New York University School of Medicine. There, he was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society and served as chapter president for two years. He completed his residency in dermatology at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical Center, and at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
Dr. Radusky practices general and cosmetic dermatology with a focus on the early detection of skin cancer, and provides patients with a personalized approach to looking their best at any age. He has authored articles and textbook chapters on the clues that our finger- and toenails may provide us about internal disease, as well as on comprehensive therapies for cosmetic dermatology and reversing the signs of skin aging.
Complementing his medical practice, Radusky has a strong passion for the cultural arts, particularly in expanding access to youths and seniors. He previously served as an artist instructor for the Rockaway Artists Alliance, a New York City nonprofit arts and education organization, and then served as both a board director and treasurer of the organization throughout his medical school training.
Radusky enjoys spending time outdoors with his wife Robyn, son Oliver, and poodle Lucy, where he can usually be found preventing photoaging and reducing the risk of skin cancer beneath an umbrella in a wide-brimmed hat. He is also the proud inventor of Sunshotz, the world’s only sunscreen measuring cup, designed to help patients of all ages apply the proper amount of sunscreen needed to enjoy all the sun without the burn.
Kristeen Cherney, PhD
Author
With a doctorate in English (rhetoric and composition), Dr. Cherney focuses her academic scholarship on the intersection between disability and literacy. She also holds a Master of Arts in English and a Bachelor of Arts in communication.
Cherney has contributed to the books The Wiley Handbook on Violence in Education: Forms, Factors, and Preventions, Composing in Four Acts: Readings for Writers, and Georgia State University's Guide to First-Year Writing, as well as to scholarly journals like Praxis, the Journal of Teaching Writing, and the Journal of Dracula Studies.
Cherney enjoys running, meditating, hiking, and paddleboarding.