Top 66 Winnie Harlow Quotes

To be completely honest, I never thought I could become a model growing up. I actually wanted to be an entertainment journalist.

I don’t perm my hair anymore, but I’m not a natural hair expert just because it grows out of my head like that.

I am not my skin. I am a model with a skin condition.

Things were fine in elementary school, but when I moved schools in grade three, not only was I the new kid, I was the new kid with the skin condition.

Funnily enough, of course I’ve always thought B was amazing, but I’ve never been, like, ‘Beyhive status’… until actually meeting her. I would honestly drop anything I’m doing to work for her again. Not just because of who she is but because of my experience with her filming for two days.

Regardless of what race, what color, what sex, what nationality, what sexual orientation – regardless of who you are, equality should always rule! Whatever is right for you is right. Period.

I remember sitting by my window, wishing upon the stars that my skin condition would go away. I wondered, ‘Why me?’

People have black skin, people have brown skin. I have both.

I don’t want to be put in a category.

With my skin, I have to avoid direct contact with the sun, so that, combined with my mom being conservative, meant I grew up wearing stockings under shorts and long sleeves under tank tops. It was kind of embedded in me that I was supposed to be covering up.

I feel like I have so many amazing opportunities because of my immigrant mother, my immigrant grandparents.

I’m just living life. And if that inspires you, I’m proud, but I’m not going to put pressure on myself to be the best person in the world and tell everyone I have vitiligo. If you want to know about it, you can do your research. Either way, I’m not in the dictionary under ‘vitiligo.’

I more so appreciate people loving the fact that I love myself and not just glorifying my skin or me.

Even as a little girl, my mom never wanted me to watch BET, but when I was at my grandparents’ house, and my older cousins were there and I could watch it, I was infatuated with the idea that I could one day be a DJ or the host of a show.

There is beauty in everything.

I didn’t have a problem with myself or my skin. I had a problem with the way people treated me because of my skin. They tried to define me.

Kids called me a cow and mooed at me.

Chantelle Winnie is my birth name. Chantelle Winnie Harlow, I call her my Sasha Fierce.

Growing up, I didn’t have a lot of real friends, and the people I was friends with, I’ve grown apart from – they were frenemies more than anything.

For me, honestly, the term ‘role model’ means for someone to be imitated, and I don’t feel like anyone is to be imitated.

I’m not a vitiligo spokesperson just because I have vitiligo.

I get comments saying that I’m a leper, I control how my skin changes, I bleach my skin, my skin’s burned. None of those are true.

The more people see, the more they want to see.

My parents separated before I was born, but they remained friends, so I was close to both sides of my family, with siblings and cousins and godparents. I’ve had the same best friend since grade six.

The worst thing I’ve done while sad is sit in defeat. That’s very unhealthy. The best thing to do is dust yourself off and try again.

Growing up in the greater Toronto area, I was a happy kid. I was my mother’s first child, surrounded by admiring godparents and cousins.

I think we need to take a step back and realize what the real issues are – it’s not being from different places or being different.

I am literally just a human. I have the same brain as you; there’s a skeleton under my skin just like yours.

Some rules are there for a reason – but it’s one thing to have a rule that protects and another to have rules that stifle.

I had to relearn how to love myself by forgetting the opinions of everyone else and focusing on my opinion of myself.

I’ve been doing my own makeup since I was 15. I would steal my mom’s products, go online, watch YouTube videos of girls doing their makeup, and try.

My confidence was more of a fake-it-until-you-make-it kind of thing. I tried to build my own confidence and not rely on the opinions of others.

My sense of fashion has developed a lot.

You think of floating on a rock in space as so alien, but that’s exactly what we’re doing.

I learned to love who I am despite what anyone would say about or to me. This gave me the courage to really stand up to anyone or any obstacle in my life.

You should be careful what you choose to see as a role model, whereas inspiration can come from anywhere.

You can’t let someone else lower your self-esteem, because that’s what it is – self-esteem. You need to first love yourself before you have anybody else love you.

I have my flaws, but I embrace them and I love them because they’re mine.

I don’t remember my skin changing, but I do recall feeling deeply loved by my family.

I’m happy to inspire your seven-year-old child, but I do not want to be her role model.

If humans want to see the same types of people over and over, that’s what industries will give us. If we want to see something different, that’s what they’ll have to give us.

A lot of people ask me how I keep my skin fairly smooth and avoid breakouts, and I think that’s because I always take off my make-up before I go to bed, and I mean really take it off.

My skin’s not a normal sight. When a photographer says, ‘I don’t know what it is, but that’s just not it…’ I know. They like the different colours of my skin. They’re not getting them with a particular outfit.

It’s weird to me for people to stare at me, because I feel like I’m normal. I don’t see what there is to stare about.

Like any other kid, I was trying so hard to fit in that school made no sense to me. I wasn’t attending class; I was trying to hang out in the caf with the cool kids. I was always trying to be cool.

My modelling career is about hard work.

I liked to hang around my mom’s beauty salon, watching her do hair.

I loved myself. And with that, opportunities start to fall into my lap. And I thank God for all of them.

I’ve never been a die-hard Beyonce fan. I always thought she was inspirational and beautiful.

I feel like people put too much on the title of a role model.

I’ve always been a lot about beauty and products, and skincare and make-up.

I loved reading magazines about the entertainment world.

My skin’s not a normal sight.

Chantelle Brown-Young is my real name. Winnie is my nickname that I was given as a teenager, and it has stuck with me. I’ve combined my real name and my nick name to create ‘Chantelle Winnie.’ My alter ego, where I seek confidence when I model, is ‘Winnie Harlow.’

It’s amazing what a little encouragement can do.

I wasn’t part of the BeyHive before I met her, but after my experience working with her, meeting her, I’m a die-hard fan.

With vitiligo, my skin is sensitive in extreme temperatures.

I always loved the spotlight, just not the negativity.

Focus on your opinion of yourself and not the opinion others have of you.

I think you have to feel your best by yourself. I do think it’s important to have a solid friend that you can turn to, though – one that you can vent to.

People sometimes ask when I learned to love myself. But that was not the issue.

I don’t do much cooking because it’s impossible when you travel so much. You go grocery shopping, buy everything, and then get a call to fly out for two weeks. By the time you’re back, all the food is rotten.

I feel like I am an inspiration. That’s the word I prefer. I don’t believe that I have to be a role model, someone to be emulated.

When I got older, it got harder because when kids get older, they get meaner, so I went through a lot of bullying and people calling me, like, ‘zebra’ or ‘cow,’ so it was really hard growing up.

If I’m running around or just hanging out at home, then I barely wear any make-up.

When I was young, I was picked on for something that today I feel is amazing. One thing about me connects millions of people around the world. And it’s my skin condition – vitiligo.