Christelle Mengue, 29, came up about the anguish and rejection she faced as a result of her albinism. She tried her hardest to blend in, even lying about her identity, but she recognized she needed to learn more about her illness. So learning about it helped her accept herself.And, while Mengue’s skin was initially exploited against her, it quickly became her most valuable asset after she began on a self-love journey.

This finally led to her popularity as a model.Mengue was born in Cameroon, and she is the only one of her six brothers who has albinism. And, while her family accepted her for who she was, the rest of the community did not. She even claimed that medics labeled her as handicapped. Her disability was branded a “curse,” and the bullying became so severe that her parents fled to Paris when she was five years old.

Unfortunately, moving to Paris did not always make matters better. She grew up in a predominantly white community, yet she was never accepted. To make matters worse, she was also rejected by her black community. It all made little sense to young Mengue. She stated, “When I was younger, I knew I was different, but I had no idea why — even when I grew up in a white community in France, I did not feel accepted.”

School was not a happy place for Mengue since she was bullied because of her skin, with students calling her “weird, ugly, or a ghost.”Unfortunately, things only got worse for her as she grew older. Mengue saw her classmates go through puberty and find boyfriends while she remained on the sidelines. She tried to muck up her skin by coloring her hair darker and using heavier makeup in the hopes that people would mistake her for a mixed-race girl.

Nonetheless, Mengue’s journey to self-acceptance began after years of attempting to adapt and fit numerous molds in order to be accepted. Mengue’s cover-up eventually became too much for him. Despite having low self-esteem and confidence, she was over-damaging her hair and wearing cosmetics that did not match her skin tone.Mengue was 19 years old at the time of her shift and was spotted by a French modeling agency, which dramatically transformed her perspective on albinism.

She realized she had never seen somebody who resembled her on television or in magazines. Most importantly, she realized how much she had let others to define her without understanding her condition. So the model decided to conduct some study on albinism and discovered that it was not a disability but rather a lack of pigmentation. She had a totally normal brain, just like everyone else.

She learned to appreciate her skin during her first photoshoot. “I looked back at the photos and realized I did not look that bad in photos,” Mengue explained, “and I began to embrace my skin.” Mengue is now a successful model at Models of Diversity, an agency dedicated to representing different models, and appears in their newest calendar.

She believes that her bravery will inspire others to come out of their shells. “I am sharing my story to promote diversity — I hope other people see the calendar and realize anything is possible,” the model said. Mengue’s road was fraught with ups and downs, but each setback pushed her closer to freely and lovingly embracing who she was.