If one day I'm all black, I'm still a model. If one day I'm all white, I'm still a model.
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.
People have black skin, people have brown skin. I have both.
I was a lucky kid, and I grew up connected to a lot of people.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I remember sitting by my window, wishing upon the stars that my skin condition would go away. I wondered, 'Why me?'
Chantelle Winnie is my birth name. Chantelle Winnie Harlow, I call her my Sasha Fierce.
Nick Knight was my first big gig as a 'real' model. Prior to and during 'ANTM,' I never actually called myself a model because I always viewed it as a hobby.
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.
I wasn't born with vitiligo. It developed when I was 4 years old. My skin changed dramatically over the next few years.
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.
For me personally, I have vitiligo, so my whole career, it's always been this very odd debate: 'Does she want to be white? Is she white and black? Is her mum white?' It's always been this question of my background, my race, and what I stand for.
Focus on your opinion of yourself and not the opinion others have of you.
My skin's not a normal sight.
Winnie Harlow is my alter ego like how Beyonce refers to her stage name as Sasha Fierce.
The more people see, the more they want to see.
I always loved the spotlight, just not the negativity.
