People are pretending to have vitiligo in the 'Bratz Challenge' and WTF

28 January 2019, 13:24

By Jazmin Duribe

The internet loves a challenge, so here's another one you can sink your teeth into.

Whether it's the 10 Year Challenge or the Cinnamon Challenge, these things catch on – and now we have the Bratz Challenge. If you grew up in the 2000s, you'll know that Bratz Dolls were iconic. They had big lips, huge eyes and enough eyeshadow to put a beauty YouTuber to shame.

Basically, the whole challenge involves people transforming themselves into their favourite Bratz doll, drawing inspiration from the four original dolls Yasmin, Cloe, Jade, and Sasha. The trend was actually around in 2017 but it's having a 2019 moment right now. Even Halsey has tried her hand at it (albeit, not intentionally).

Why are people doing this, you ask? Well, who knows but it's incredibly impressive. Here's just some of the amazing recreations.

However, there's always at least one person who decides to be problematic. Some makeup artists are recreating looks based on dolls with vitiligo, when they don't have the condition themselves. Vitiligo is a long-term condition where pale white patches develop on the skin. It's caused by the lack of pigment.

Lauren Elyse, a makeup artist with vitiligo, highlighted the problem with people recreating her condition, even though they don't have it. Turning a medical condition into a fashion statement is just not okay, especially when there are people that have been bullied for their skin. If anyone needs vitiligo inspiration, how about looking up to people who actually have it!?

"I don't need someone who doesn’t have it to 'celebrate' it or 'raise awareness'," she tweeted. "There are plenty of us out there who are doing that who are barely seen, yet people who decide to mimic it are. It's not even about what we went through growing up, but also what we experience NOW."

View this post on Instagram

S E L F • L O V E ——————————————————— Since I’m doing a series of Valentine’s Day looks, I thought I’d do a look and talk about self-love. For those of you who don’t know, I was diagnosed with vitiligo around 5 or 6 years old, with the spots on my face developing when I was about 20. I was so embarrassed by them that I rarely left the house without covering them with makeup. It took some time for me to feel ok with them and posting on here helped. However, social media had pressured me into thinking that the only way I could boost my following and further my career as a makeup artist was to cover my spots and look like every other ‘IG baddie.’ Eventually, I got tired of looking like that, it wasn’t me and so I stopped covering them in my looks. I constantly struggle with loving myself- I have issues with my body and my personality, thinking I’m either too much or not enough. But, I’ve definitely grown to love this part of me, and I can’t imagine myself looking any other way. Lately, I’ve been seeing more and more people create vitiligo spots with makeup for “looks” and it makes me deeply uncomfortable. When I was covering my vitiligo, people would say that I was insecure and how I must hate myself. Now that I don’t, people call me an attention-seeker, that I should cover it up along with other nasty comments. These people who mimic skin conditions get praise for being “creative” and “artistic” and “unique” while those of us who actually have it are still being disrespected and harassed by people. I understand that their intentions are good, but we do not need people who don’t have it to tell us how beautiful we are- we have each other for that. We have people like @yvesmark.chery @sadistitt @barbarhat and (the inspiration for this look) @radiantbambi and so many other people with vitiligo to show how beautiful, dope and unique we are. I still have a long way to go in my self-love journey, but I’m glad that I love my vitiligo as much as I do now. And I’m so honored whenever anyone of you with vitiligo shares your story with me and tell me how I’ve helped you feel more comfortable and confident in yourselves 🖤

A post shared by Lauren Elyse (@laur_elyse) on Jan 23, 2019 at 2:01pm PST

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