How To Transform Your Diversity In Your Major Strength

From victim of bullying to worldwide published author, this is the story of Shankar Jalota, also known as “The Vitiligo Man”.

Shankar was only 14 years old when he started to notice strange white patches appearing on his skin. They first appeared on his elbows and later propagated to form around his eyes.

From that moment, Shankar's life changed completely. Other children started to make fun of his white spots and called him “Panda Eyes”, making what was happening to him extremely difficult to process as he had no answers as to what it was or why it was happening.

After carrying out extensive research of his own, he came up with an answer: Vitiligo. He realised he had a hidden condition, one of those you cannot cure with any medicine, something that he would have to learn to live with.

Vitiligo is a condition caused by the lack of melanin, which causes white patches on your skin and affects more than 70 million people across the world.

Shankar was deeply in shock after finding out he couldn’t do anything to change what had happened to him. His illness was not only affecting him negatively from an emotional perspective, but even physically. He started to fight it by scratching his skin violently until the point of hurting himself. He felt ugly and insecure and used to cover it with make-up because he was ashamed of what others could have thought about him.

Shankar stopped enjoying beautiful sunny days and used to hide in the shade so that his skin did not tan; otherwise, it would have highlighted his condition even more.

He alternated moments of depression with ones of anger and sadness until eventually he came to the point of acceptance.

One day he woke up to go to work. He had a specific routine to follow, which consisted of a shower, putting clothes on, and make-up to cover the patches when he realised his make-up bag wasn’t there.

It was a terrifying moment for him because he knew he had no choice but to reveal his true self to the world. He decided to take on this huge personal challenge and realised that he no longer had to hide the very thing that makes him authentic.

From that day, his main inspiration has been Winnie Harlow; as Shankar stated that it was a huge moment for him to see another person affected by the same condition becoming a model. This helped him come to terms with his experience, and embrace the empowerment it could provide him with, rather than the shame he had been carrying for many years.

The Vitiligo Man then decided to expand his journey by writing a children's book to support children who share the same or similar conditions in an enjoyable way through visual representations of his experiences through high-quality illustrations.

He felt compelled to tell his story to this particular target audience to raise awareness of Vitiligo among future generations, and educate them about inclusivity and diversity, as well as embracing the fact that the parts of ourselves that are different are the parts that make us special. By empowering children through the medium of words, we can create an influential change in how they treat one another and themselves.

The book is now distributed worldwide to major retailers such as Waterstones, Kindle etc., and it is rated 5/5 stars on Amazon.

Today Shankar is one of the prominent exponents of the Vitiligo Society, Ambassador of Changing Faces Uk — a leading charity organisation for everyone with a mark or condition — and has been interviewed by BBC News and Radio, as well as Channel 5.

He now doesn’t cover his patches anymore, and he doesn’t feel ugly or abnormal anymore. He made his major weakness his best strength by destroying prejudices and biases, and becoming a best-selling author in the process- a truly inspiring story.

Want to start your publishing journey as Shankar did? Reply to this email with the words “tell my story” or head over to the website and submit your details to publishingpush.com