WOMEN CRUSH WEDNESDAY

Chantelle Whitney Brown-Young, popularly known as Winnie Harlow, is a Canadian fashion model and public spokesperson on the skin condition vitiligo. Harlow was born July 27, 1994 in Mississauga, Canada to Lisa Brown and Windsor Young. She was diagnosed with the chronic condition vitiligo at the age of four. Due to her unusual skin depigmentation, she was a victim of bullying and called all manner of names.

Harlow was discovered by Tyra Banks, America’s Next Top Model host, on Instagram. She was the only Canadian ever cast in the America’s Next Top Model show, unfortunately she was evicted in the second week of the finals. She later went on to model for Spanish clothing brand Desigual and became the official brand ambassador.

She has since then walked for clothing brand Ashish for its 2015 S/S collection in London. Modelled for fashion magazines such as I-D and Dazed, fashion website Showstudio.com. The same year, she was featured on vogue Italia’s website, she was also featured in the August 2015 issue of Cosmopolitan. She graced the cover of Ebony magazine September issue, alongside Fatima Siad.

She has featured in several commercials, like Sprite 2016 commercial, the Swarovski campaign, campaigns for Fendi, Diesel, Nike, Puma, Victoria’s Secret and several others. She was chosen for BBC’S 100 women in 2018.

Asides modelling, she also raises awareness for vitiligo. She speaks publicly and answers questions on her skin condition and how she lives with it. She has also featured in various music videos and films. The latest being Wizkid’s music video, True Love.

She won the Beauty Idol award in the 2015 Gala Spa Awards, Role Model award in 2015 Portuguese GQ men of the year award and Editor’s award in the 2017 Glamour awards. She was also nominated twice for the Choice model award in the 2016 Teen Choice Awards.