Thando Hopa had a question she would ask her father through tears: why wasn’t she like the other children.
She was born in Johannesburg with albinism, a hereditary lack of skin pigmentation, and the street never knew what to do with it. Some strangers hugged her as if touching her brought good luck. Others spat when they saw her to ward off bad luck. She was bullied at school, and some teachers mistook her poor eyesight, an effect of albinism, for an intellectual disability.
Her father, an engineer, kept telling her she was the most beautiful girl. She grew up, became a lawyer, and turned down several modeling offers because she thought it was a superficial profession. Until designer Gert-Johan Coetzee suggested a photo shoot, and her sister offered a different perspective: it could be an opportunity to change perceptions of albinism.
She accepted. Her motto became “a different shade of normal”, a different shade from normal, and the idea that beauty is a choice. 🌍