Onella Muralidharan, vitiligo
“One of my earliest memories as a kid is standing in the hot afternoon sun, covered head to toe in oil. When I was young, my mum would make me do this all the time in an effort to recover the pigment in my skin. I was born with vitiligo – an autoimmune disease that kills off the pigment in my skin cells. I don't blame her for it. I was born to Sri Lankan parents in Bangladesh, and in 1999, if your child's skin is starting to change like mine was, it's a scary time for any parent. My parents always had this view of wanting to cure me, of wanting me to be ‘fixed’.
“It was the little things. Throughout my life, my parents would always make me wear stockings under a dress. When I was seven, my mum put foundation on my face to cover my spots. I hated it. Once I moved to Australia, and I had clearance from my doctor, I did UV treatments to slow and reverse the
