Meet Fatoumata

I noticed my first patch in 2008, in Montreal.

I didn't know what it was at all. Never heard about vitiligo.

I booked an appointment with a dermatologist when I went to see him, he right away told me that I had vitiligo. And then he added that it was irreversible but that I could do some treatments to slow the process. Kind of electroshock. I said no thanks. I left his office hopeless, disappointed and scared.

I moved from Montreal to Winnipeg in 2011. I found a family doctor who referred me to a dermatologist and I started a treatment called (UVB treatment) for 2 years. My face was getting burned when I was having shower - I could barely touch it with a face cloth.

One time I went to Montreal for a month. In that month without treatment, it looked like I never did any treatment. At that moment that I decided to stop trying to get my black color back and accepted my destiny.

I suffered most when I was taking my baby to the playground - as soon as the moms saw us approaching they would take their kids and leave....or when we arrived, little by little everyone would leave.

Despite that, I met some beautiful people - I remember one day at an event, a mom that I met at the playground came and hugged me when I was noticing another mom taking her daughter and walking away because of me. When this mom hugged me, I didn't know what to do. I asked myself why is she hugging me? I felt so bizarre, asking myself… ‘she's not scared?’ Today we are still friends.

What was really interesting about my journey was the fact back in Paris (where I grew up). I was fighting to be accepted by people in a society where differences weren't welcomed all the time. And then with my vitiligo, I had to fight with myself to accept my new me.

I wasn't really mad at the people here who were staring at me because I was now used to it. I learned to just keep walking and not even noticing that someone is looking at me.... this is how I had to accept my new me.

Today I love the skin I'm in....I was born to be different!