Jasmine Arora doesn't mind if you ask politely about the different colors of her skin or the white streak in her hair.
In fact the 10-year-old Guelph girl welcomes the chance to advocate and educate about vitiligo, the auto-immune condition that leaves patches of skin without pigment.
It affects roughly one per cent of the population but is more noticeable on dark skin.
In Jasmine's case it means some white splotches on her brown skin and a streak of white in her hair many think she puts there as a fashion statement.
“I like talking about it the proper way and explaining it the correct way, instead of just ignoring them,” says Jasmine.
There’s no cure. It doesn’t hurt and it isn’t contagious. Sometimes it decreases over time.
“I’ve had so many funny comments, I just like to be humorous about it. In Kindergarten on the bus someone said ‘you look like a cow’ and I was just laughing.”
Another time she was asked if she’d been in a fire.
“The only people I respond to are the people that ask nicely,” Jasmine says. “I like it when people ask nicely instead of just freaking out or making rude comments and just assuming things.”
Her mom Indu says there have been many supportive people and a few not so supportive.
“We’ve lost friends over it,” her mom Indu says, with people thinking it was a contagious condition.
"I still do worry at times," says Jasmine's mom of the treatment her daughter can get from strangers because of the way she looks.
Jasmine has the perfect disposition: “You should be happy with what your skin looks like. No matter what your gender or race or anything like that, you should be happy with who you are.”
It’s a look that has been seen on television the past few months after Jasmine won a spot performing on the TVO Kids show It’s My Party.
She filmed eight episodes in Toronto over two days last summer and six of the episodes have aired on TVO since November. All the episodes are online on the TVO kids site and Youtube.
“It was very tiring," Jasmine said of the filiming. "I was wearing branded shoes and we weren’t allowed to wear those so I had to switch into my sandals, so my feet were hurting."
“We had to jump around and dance and, for some reason, kick soccer balls.”
Repeating lines until it didn’t sound scripted was interesting.
“They want it perfect,” Jasmine says, who took some good-natured ribbing from her teachers at Paisley Road Public School after the shows hit the airwaves for the first time.
“They were teasing me that they wanted my autograph,” she laughs.
The precocious Grade 5 student loves being in the spotlight.
She appeared in the Royal City Musical Productions Inc. production of Aladdin Jr. last year and is scheduled to be in Alice Jr. this year.
She also takes ballet, jazz and contemporary dance lessons.
Vitiligo is an auto-immune condition that sees the colour pigment removed from skin and hair.
In Jasmine’s case it is “segmented,” meaning in a specific area. Some with vitiligo have it all over their bodies.
Jasmine’s vitiligo first appeared when she was nine months old. At one point there were more spots.
“It was very difficult as a parent, especially since my husband and I didn’t know what it was,” Indu says.
“We have raised her to be quite strong, and it makes me proud that she has never shied away from being on stage or in the limelight, instead she has chosen to bring awareness to her vitiligo and shown that nothing can hold her back.”
The Arora extended family and friends can also be found at the Guelph Drop In Centre the third Saturday of every month, serving Indian food they have prepared.
