Inspired choice
Model with rare skin disorder lands high-profile contract,
Spoiler alert for Canadian America’s Next Top Model fans.
Toronto beauty Chantelle Brown-Young may have been voted off the most recent episode of reality show
America’s Next Top Model, but fans will see plenty of her as the face of Desigual’s fall campaign.
The episode, which airs in Canada on Saturday, ends with Brown-Young being eliminated by votes on social media — ironic since host Tyra Banks noted that she had discovered the aspiring model on Instagram.
But the 20-year-old isn’t stepping away from the camera anytime soon.
She recently worked with Desigual, known for its colourful and wild patterns.
The marketing department of the Barcelona-based clothier says Brown-Young “fits perfectly” with “the brand’s philosophy of enjoying life and being happy.”
The Spanish retailer opened its first Canadian store in Montreal last year.
“Desigual stands for being unusual and unique and atypical, so they figured I’d be the perfect person for that,” Brown-Young recently told the New York Post .
“They had a new line that had a lot of dots. And some of my skin patterns are dots. In the campaign video, there’s a part where the dot on a scarf lines up perfectly with a dot I have on my waist, and I thought that was the coolest thing ever.”
“I had to learn how to love myself and appreciate the quirks that God gave me.” CHANTELLE BROWN-YOUNG
Last week the ads were splashed across New York City — during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week — on buses, taxis and in Times Square — a long way from the schoolyards where Brown-Young was bullied as a child.
In an earlier interview with the Star, Brown-Young recalled that kids at school called her “milky” and cow” because of the white patches on her skin, the result of vitiligo, an autoimmune disease in which the skin loses pigmentation. (Pop star Michael Jackson had the same disorder.)
“I had to learn how to love myself and appreciate the quirks that God gave me,” she told the Star.
She’s not the only one who appreciates her look — so do scores of fans. On Monday — when America’s Next Top Modelairs in the United States — many were crestfallen that Brown-Young was voted off. That episode, “The Guy Who Gets a Beard Weave,” airs here Sept. 13 at 1 p.m. on Citytv.
Following her elimination, fans took to social media with messages of praise. And on eBay, a painting of Brown-Young by American artist Dillon Boy — who referred to her as truly inspirational — is being auctioned off.
That sentiment was echoed on a Facebook fan page, where one woman wrote: “Do you know how much of an inspiration you are? You are truly a blessing to all girls all over the world. Someone I and others can relate to! You rock!”
On that same page, one man, whose daughter has the same skin disorder, said they were thrilled to see someone else with vitiligo so “happy and radiant.”
And another man applauded her courage, saying, “You are the strongest woman I’ve ever seen and met.
“I find you to be just simply in a word, beautiful,” he wrote. “Much success and love to you in your work, life and future. Shine on like the bright star you are.”