João Stanganelli is 64 years old and has had white patches on his skin since he was 38.
He lives in Bragança Paulista, Brazil, and for years those spots were his alone, until his granddaughter was born with the same vitiligo. It was for her that he learned to knit alongside his wife Marilena, and it took him five days to finish a doll with spots matching both of theirs: he called her Vitilinda.
What began as a family gift became a project that now sustains his life. João has already knitted Vitilindo and dolls with psoriasis, alopecia, blindness, motor disabilities, and overweight, so that no child feels alone in front of the mirror. He sums it up this way: “The spots I have are beautiful; what really hurts, in fact, are the spots in people’s character”.