vitiligo-is-not-a-trend

[vitiligo-is-not-a-trend]

Hi - I’m the anon who asked about the fictional condition and vitiligo (posted nov 1), and I wanted to follow up with further info.

1. The condition is progressive, though the speed of the progression is varied between people. Idk if it helps or not, but it’s usually triggered by stressful or traumatic incidents, however there is a genetic link.

2. I’m not too sure if it would be considered an autoimmune disorder or not, I’ll have to do more research. The chemical itself is linked to the adrenal glands and the fight-flight response system, if that helps.

3. Just as a side note, I do have two characters with vitiligo, completely unrelated to the condition (one segmental, one non-segemental), and only one of the five characters with the condition was going to present with vitiligo-esque symptoms.

Thank you for responding to my previous ask, hope this clears some things up!!:)

That sounds like it would work with vitiligo really well actually!

It seems like with the way it functions that vitiligo acts like a decently common co-morbidity (which can frequently happen with auto-immune disorders and disabilities in general) (and vitiligo tends to begin very similarly as well) which makes a lot of sense, so I think youre good to go!

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so, one of my stories has to do with reincarnation and I've always thought the idea of like. the current life showing some evidence of what the previous life's death was? it's often done with birthmarks- but I was wondering if it would be offensive to do so with vitiligo?

the character in mind died from an explosion, so I thought the idea of him having vitiligo centralized in the areas shrapnel hit him would be cool but I don't want it to be offensive in any way!

Please do not use vitiligo for this!!!

Once again, please avoid using vitiligo as a means of "magic" markings and/or using it to represent any sort of shapes or patterns

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thanks! one more question. is there certain kinds of vitiligo where the pale parts stop spreading after a certain amount of time?

sorry if im being super inconvenient, but youve been a great help and thank you so much for having patience with me!

There are multiple types of vitiligo that function like that, really the only one(s) that spread over your body all the time are the Universal Variant, and occasionally the Mixed Variant, as the mixed can be a combo of Universal and another Variant but not all Mixed Variants are mixed with the Universal Variant.

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Hi!! Sorry if this is long, I tried to cut it down as much as I could.

I had a question around vitiligo which revolves around a fictional condition I’m making for a story. The condition revolves around the overproduction of a chemical (made up for the story, it’s fantasy) that damages various parts of the body if too much is present. Various different cells and body parts are affected, and one of the things affected is melanin. The condition results in melanin being ‘destroyed’, so people with the condition often lose pigmentation in their eyes and skin etc. However, this condition is heavily associated with magic. Would it be problematic for people with this condition to develop vitiligo due to the melanin problems it causes? I’m wary of falling into the ‘vitiligo is a result of magic’ trope. Thanks for answering, have a great day:)

I think I need a little more info in general before I can give you some good pointers. Is the condition something that is progressive? Or is it more of a "one and done" situation like those specific cells in that specific area are effected like a chemical burn? Are they specifically developing an autoimmune disorder, or is it just mimicking the effects because it's effecting those cells?

Overall it WOULD be able to present something like this in terms of your story WITHOUT it seeming like it's vitiligo, but it is highly dependent on the way that it is presented, described, and developed.

If you do keep it as a function of your story I'd have to do a generalized recommendation of having at least one character with vitiligo just to help give contrast on the difference between Chemical(tm) and Vitiligo(tm)

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Hello :) Sorry if this has been asked before. I find skin discolorations like vitiligo very beautiful, and I am a very complement-generous person, but I am always concerned about complementing people with vitiligo and other skin discolorations because I don't want them to think I'm being sarcastic. Of course every person will take it differently, but how could I go about complimenting someone's appearance without sounding like I'm making fun of their skin difference?

Thanks 😅

I'm gonna be honest I don't really have an answer for you since it is so dependent on the person. I do however think that people are less likely to view it as sarcastic and the issue probably leans more towards how vitiligo can be seen as "exotic" and whatnot; I even made a post about how it can feel a few days ago.

It might be a "keep it to yourself" type of thing as it's something people can be pretty sensitive about it. At the end of the day it's still a disorder/disability, yk?

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Hello, I came to you for advice/correction for my character.

He originally only had an undiagnosed autoimmune disorder. However, while brainstorming an AU where he has mixed genes with a chameleon, leading him to develop an autoimmune disorder along with other comorbidities. Vitiligo came up in my research but I have a few problems:

a) the chameleon part might be dehumanizing b) he's pale as heck and would only have segmental vitiligo on his right arm, hands, and torso so it's not even noticeable and c) he's morally grey which kinda teeters into "different character is evil!"

Is there anything I should change? Or should I just avoid giving him vitiligo entirely? Thank you so much for your helpful blog.

I would avoid it entirely

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so abt the "proper treatment thing", i did read somewhere that certain creams do stop the pale area from spreading? idk where i read it it was a while back.

is this true or did i misunderstand whatever i read??

It's really hard to tell with those creams; I know a lot of them are technically scams, and the one that I DID try when I was first diagnosed (and was provided by my derm) did nothing but make my skin grey....IDK if anyone has tried them and has actually had them work but I would LOVE to know!

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Hi! I have a quick question

I'm making a medieval fantasy story and there are centaurs. In my lore, they have the lower halves of wild equines like zebras, kiangs, onagers, etc. instead of domestic horses, so none of them naturally have spots or white patches.

I know it's a problem to have a character with vitiligo that's based on an animal (like an orca mermaid having the white markings extend to their human body), but would it also be an issue to make a centaur character with vitiligo?

I have a big cast of characters in the story (it's a comic so I need a lot of background characters) and there are two other characters with vitiligo (one human and one elf) so they wouldn't be the only representation.

I would say that it would only be an issue if the vitiligo on say a zebra-based centaur followed the stripe pattern, otherwise it should be fine!

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lil question about designing a character with vitiligo (note this is the same person who asked about a paint splatter pattern. i have changed the pale patches to be more irregular and not conciously resemble anything)

so the character im designing is in his late 40s/early 50s, how far spread would the pale patches be? the character hid it when he was younger, and only started taking care of it properly in about mid 30s (not sure yet)

sorry if im being rude/believed in misinformation, im only trying to learn here :(

Depends on the variation that they have; and even still it varies person to person. Also not really sure what you mean by taking care of it properly.

This might help you out a bit more:

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hello!! i have an OC i’m developing, he has vitiligo, and this character spends a lot of time in the sun and outdoors in general.

my question is- when a person with vitiligo gets naturally tan, would the lighter areas of the skin typically get tanner as well? or does the rest of the skin tan and the lighter areas stay about the same shade?

sorry if this is a silly question or if i worded it incorrectly, i just wanted to know what would be an accurate portrayal before i incorporated that into the way this OC is designed :)))

I think it depends on the person?? I do know that people with vitiligo CAN tan and tan over their spots (I say as someone who has had this happen to varying degrees) but because of the (potential) difference in skin tone there's still a good chance that the area's with vitiligo are gonna end up a tad lighter then the ones without.

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I understand that the sentiment is always positive in context but it feels SO weird to me how people are always like "omg vitiligo is soooo pretty people with vitiligo are sooo sexy can't believe god gifted them with two skin tones" (<- actual comments I've seen). Like yes the positivity is nice but it feels like fetishizing the disorder and always makes me uncomfortable...

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Sorry to say this, but the banner of your blog is transparent, so the text isn't readable on mobile, if possible, could you make the transparency white instead? That way oppening your banner image and zooming in to read the text could be done in mobile.

Sorry again for bothering

Whoops my bad! It should hopefully be fixed now, thanks for notifying me!

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hi, someone who initially didnt do research here

i have a character with vitiligo, and i have two questions

- is it ok that the pale parts (forgive me if im not using the proper language) look like paint splatters in pattern?

- in what other ways does it affect the body? you mentioned it being an autoimmune disorder and i dont know if that means it also affects the immune system in significant ways?

sorry if this comes off as ableist and/or rude im just trying to learn

I'd encourage a read-through of the blog for a better understand of vitiligo as a whole, especially the pinned post. Please do not make the vitiligo patches to look like shapes or patterns as it dilutes it to an aesthetic and makes it seem more like makeup.

Vitiligo can lead to a higher chance of developing another auto-immune disorder (like hypothyroidism or even hearing loss) and leaves you with a higher risk of developing skin cancer.

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(I'm the anon from the ask about a fursona with vitiligo) Oh okay, I understand what you mean better now! Thank you for the explanation! :)

Youre welcome!

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Hello! I had a question about the fact you don't like/recommend creating animal-based characters with vitiligo (if I understood correctly).

I have vitiligo, but it hasn't impacted my life at all personally (both because it started recently (one or two years ago), and because my is light so it's very hard to see it (a few close friends noticed it, but even I struggle to see it most of the time)).

I tried creating a fursona, so an anthropomorphic animal character that kinda represents me, for fun, and I gave them vitiligo as well.

I did it because I based that character on things I am and things I like, and I do have vitiligo and I like how it looks (on me, on other people, and on the character). The vitiligo on the character is way more visible than mine (as I mentioned, mine is very hard to see; but my character has blue fur, and the white spots contrast it a lot, you can't miss that element of their design)

I would guess it's fine in that case because it's sort of a representation of me, and I have vitiligo myself; but I'm still curious about your opinion on it!

It's less of an issue of animal characters having vitiligo but rather going from an animal that has pattern markings (like stripes on a tiger or spots on a cow) gets anthropomorphized into a person. So if I were to take for example Po from Kung Fu Panda, and turn the pattern from his panda into a vitiligo marking if I decided to draw him as a human THAT would an issue (imo).There's nothing wrong with having an animal or furry character that has vitiligo!

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hello !! So, i have an oc in my story with vitiligo. Right now I can't quite think of a situation it would come up in, or the right way to describe it and i'd like to do the best i can. I can't go the whole book not knowing a significant part of his appearance. Wording is my biggest concern, so my question is: how would i go about describing it in text?

Treat it like you would any other physical aspect of the character. Whenever you're at the point of describing their overall appearance add it there. I don't know your writing style or what the overall gist of your book is, but when you have vitiligo and it's very visible it's not something that goes unnoticed, so it wouldn't be too unusual for a character to mention it every once in a while as well.

Taking the time to be specific about where the vitiligo is and how "intense" it is would also help. Describing the vitiligo as patches or even patterned rather than spotted or speckled or even dappled might be more effective for the initial/broader description as it can avoid connotations of looking like a spotted animal(Also just avoid animal comparisons in general!!!). If you're ever at a moment where a character might be studying this one intensely it would be a good time to get a little bit more ~detailed~. Not all vitiligo has perfectly defined and smooth edges so using words like dappled or speckled to describe that part or taking note of smaller patches as spots is perfectly fine! It's honestly really up to the phrasing as to what the connotations for how it can look depend on, so this isn't a Do/Don't situation (except for the animal part.). Even just using the word vitiligo can help a lot!!

Here are some other posts that you might find useful:

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hey! im an alter in a system and internally i look like as if i have vitiligo (although i know i dont actually and i wont claim to have it). i was wondering if you knew some ways i could support ppl with vitiligo since i feel like i should do something for yall cuz of that ! ^-^

Honestly just listen to people with vitiligo's voices especially when it comes to things they might find uncomfortable! ^v^