10 Best Things About Having Albinism

Accessibility: Antonia, who has white hair in a bun, 

is wearing a floral robe. She is lying on a bed on her stomach,

hands tucked under her chin and feet kicked up. She is

smiling at the camera.

June 13 is International Albinism Awareness Day. This year's theme is 'Still Standing Strong." In the spirit of such a positive theme, I thought I would share what, in my opinion, are the best 10 things about having albinism. This list is in no particular order.

1. Beautiful hair: I can't tell you haw many times I have been stopped on the street just for people to compliment my hair. Similarly, I am told over and over again that 'people pay a lot of money to have hair the same color as mine." While I didn't like it so much growing up, now I really love my white hair and I consider myself lucky to have it. I don't mean to sound conceded when I say this, but compliments have never hurt anyone...

2. No tan lines: because I have albinism, I don't have melanin (or pigment) in my body. This means I don't get a tan. While this means I look extremely pale in the summer and I have to be really careful with the sun, it also means I don't get tan lines. I can wear whatever swimsuits I want and then whatever clothes I want without having to worry about what my skin looks like, because there are no tan lines!

3. Easy to spot in a crowd: I know that wherever I go, I am easy to find in a crowd or group photo. Good or bad? You decide! However, I think it is nifty that I can find myself right away in group photos and that others can find me in a crowd without any problems. Similarly, when I am meeting someone new, my looks are distinct enough that I know it is easy for them to find me.

4. Resilience: as someone who grew up looking so different from my peers and who was visually impaired, I became resilient from a very early age. I think everyone has hurdles to jump. However, when you grow up in a visual world that was not made for your visual impairment, you quickly learn how to push through and achieve your goals.

5. Outside the box thinker: similarly to my previous point, as someone with a vision impairment, I had to learn early on how to do things differently so that I could achieve the same results as everyone else. Problem-solving has become second nature to me, from figuring out how to achieve a visual task to finding make-up that is light enough for my skin tone, I am always thinking of alternative ways to do things.

6. Tattoos look awesome on albino skin: I don't have any tattoos (and I am too chicken to get any!), but the advantage of having porcelain skin is that colors from tattoo ink appear vibrant and beautiful on our skin.

7. No gray hairs: when you don't have pigment, there is no pigment to lose so... what you see is what you get!

8. Great canvas for color: some people in the albinism community like to experiment with dying their hair and really cool makeup (if you are good at that kind of stuff) and it always looks great because you are starting from basically... white. The struggle is real to find a foundation match, but everything else looks pretty darn good!

9. Less skin damage in the long haul: persons with albinism should not be in the sun and we should wear sunscreen when we are. I am not always great about it, but I know that in the long run I will have less sun damage to my skin because I have been more conscientious about that.

10. Community: when you are born with albinism, you have a built-in community of people who understand what you are going through and automatically 'get it.' Plus, some of the most incredible humanbeings in my life are persons with albinism -just saying...

This is my Top 10 list. What are some of the best things about having albinism in your opinion?

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