The good, the bad and the ugly - Facebook raising awareness of Vitiligo

I was shown a picture on Facebook of a girl who had been bullied at school for having the skin condition Vitiligo.  If you search on Facebook using the hashtag #FarrahGrayCares, you will see the photo.  There are literally thousands and thousands of comments on there and it has been doing the rounds on social media for over a year.  I think that whilst it's positive to show support for people who are bullied and made to feel bad because of how they look, it has also invited some negative comments.

People can be really cruel and social media and whilst its brilliant in many ways, it can make vulnerable people even more vulnerable if they are faced with negative comments by total strangers.  There's a lot of keyboard warriors out there and it's really easy for them to be nasty to somebody they have never met.

I think it's really brave of the girl (whether this is real or a hoax as has been sugggested) to be photographed showing her patches.  Many people feel comfortable enough to show their skin, such as the model, Winnie Harlow.  However, for me personally, I only feel comfortable when I have covered my patches up.

I have used social media and more traditional publicity (Michelle Mone Mentors in Fabulous Magazine and the TV show Too Ugly For Love) in order to raise awareness of Vitiligo and also to help make people aware that I have developed Vitiliglow to give people a choice about covering their patches, if doing so makes them feel better.

Whether this is a hoax or not, I am pleased that people with Vitiligo have got together to share their positive stories thanks to Facebook.  And I hope that the trolls/keyboard warriors think twice before they make somebody feel worse about themselves.

As always, I'd love to know what you think.

Polly
Creator of Vitiliglow

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