When Akenna Kublal gets on stage in Minnesota in the US to co-host women’s night at the World Vitiligo Day conference on June 24, she will hardly be out of her comfort zone. The 33-year-old trained public speaker and personal development and image consultant has been living with vitiligo since 2015 and is an advocate and spokesperson for vitiligo awareness.

The skin condition develops when the cells that produce pigment die or stop producing melanin and causes patches of skin to become lighter. The autoimmune condition affects about two per cent of the global population and may be hereditary or triggered by stress and skin trauma.

Kublal said between 2015 and now it has spread to approximately 75 per cent of her body.

“The spread was quite rapid. It’s on my face, legs, ear, scalp, almost on every part of my body,” she told WMN.

[caption id="attachment_955999" align="alignnone" width="683"] Akenna Kublal says vitiligo doesn't define who she is, a message she wants women and girls to embrace. - PHOTO BY SUREASH CHOLAI[/caption]

And although it took her some time to accept and appreciate that her beauty is more than skin deep, she reflects on the people and circumstances that brought her to a place where she has made it her life’s mission to help people, especially women, to see and understand the value of what lies beneath their skin.

Kublal is the founder of a women’s empowerment group called Labour of Love and has written her first book, Labour of Love: a woman’s journey from pain to purpose. The book was published earlier this year and documents her journey over the years – childhood trauma, teenage pregnancy, multiple abortions, attempted suicide, escaping domestic abuse, starting over and finding her purpose.

“There are so many parts that make up Akenna. So many different parts to the whole story. When I started getting vitiligo, I was employed as a flight attendant and I thought that was the worst thing that could happen to me at that time because I was in a job where image was so important.”

She said even though she was already on the way out of flying because of an injury she had sustained on the job, the onset of the condition was a huge blow to her ego.

“I was beautiful and my makeup and my hair always looked great. To me, that was beauty.”

She said when she first got vitiligo, the “your skin looks like a cow” comments really bothered her. But now, after working to get where she's at now, she is no longer self conscious about her looks.

“If I have to attend an event I’ll use a little makeup, but I always make sure and tell the makeup artist I don’t want to hide the area of the vitiligo. I do this intentionally because I have two daughters and I think it’s important for me to show them that you don’t have to cover up what people might think is imperfection. Confidence starts with you.”

So what does she believe was her trigger for the development of vitiligo?

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