I’m always about celebrating difference of any kind. Celebrating difference is really just celebrating all the different kinds of beauty in the world–and what’s not to love about that? This is why I really love the video ad for Gap’s new Beauty and the Beast-inspired clothing line, because it features a young girl with a skin difference. And this difference makes her a stand-out beauty.
The girl is 11-year-old April, and she has a skin disorder called vitiligo, which is a disease that causes the loss of skin color in blotches. The campaign, which is called “Fearless Beauty,” was launched by Gap in partnership with Disney.
Gap describes the campaign as a celebration of “strength and bravery” on its website–which is exactly what it is. April is all smiles and radiating confidence–you can tell she is happy just being who she is–and why shouldn’t she be? Just because her skin looks “different” than other people’s doesn’t mean it’s less beautiful. Who wants to look like everybody else anyway? In the video, she says:
“I’ve taken 4.3 million selfies. I feel like when you have confidence, you’re not scared,” she says, adding, “So … confidence is courage.”
The video was originally shared on Gap’s Facebook page on February 4, and has garnered 137k views since, which is not surprising, because her confidence is infectious. Parents responded to the video by sharing photos of their own kids with birthmarks and other abnormalities, some who have vitiligo themselves:
Change happens everyday–and we can teach our kids to accept their difference (and others’) in these small moments, like this one-minute ad from the Gap. Because kids learn by example–and by repetition–so I’m grateful for any little bit of inclusion and diversity I can get from the media.
