Dating vitiligo

What Dating with Vitiligo Taught Me about Self-Love

For ages, women are taught to link their self-worth with physical attractiveness and with a chronic skin condition like vitiligo, a woman may feel conscious, insecure and unattractive. Such an emotional toll can squeeze down the chances of success in the dating world. Laura Gregory, a beauty queen and model with vitiligo, reveals from her own experience that beauty comes in all shapes, size, skin colors and conditions. Vitiligo does not make you less beautiful otherwise how someone with vitiligo like me could get to participate and won the beauty pageants. The world has undergone an array of changes. From scientific revolutions to medical discoveries, we experienced the growth of mankind. However, the journey from a man to a social being took place not because of technological revolutions but revolutions in our thoughts and beliefs. Notions of beauty, love, relationships and respect for a fellow human being changed massively. The idea of beauty changed from limiting itself to physical attraction and being synonymous with sexual desires to appreciate the beauty within the heart of a person. Today, beauty does not define itself only through physical attractiveness, but through intellectual attraction and confident quotient as well.

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They say that you need to love yourself before you can love someone else. I thought I had, until I broken-heartedly said goodbye to a two-year relationship — and my confidence along with it. I thought my former partner was the answer to all my prayers — my soulmate. In many ways, I loved him more than I loved myself. So when our two- year relationship failed, it felt like my world was crashing. Looking back, I realized that I could have avoided a lot of that pain if I had practiced self-love during our relationship. Before I started dating, I had begun to slowly find the beauty in my skin.

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Its one of those subjects that creates a lot of discussion, divided opinion and for some, can arouse feelings of sensitivity, as thoughts of feeling comfortable and showing a potential partner our skin, can leave us feeling a little anxious. Dating can be difficult for the average person, but what does dating look like when you have vitiligo? For some, especially if they have vitiligo extensively, it can overshadow the entire experience, altering what they to choose to wear and possibly, how they come across on the actual date.

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Dating through the eyes of a woman with vitiligo

One of the things I learnt later in life in relation to dating, was that confidence speaks volumes. My twenties was a time when I lacked confidence, was very embarrassed about my skin and questioned who would find me attractive with a skin condition as vibrant as mine. That time has thankfully passed and now I see every day as an opportunity to learn and grow. Through growth and shifting my mindset, here are some of the questions I can reflect on and some of the key things that I now understand about dating as a woman with vitiligo;.

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