00:01Growing up in the Bronx was rough because people, you know, they wanted to know, like,
00:05okay, what are you? And the moment I said I'm black or I'm African American, it was just, like,
00:10a joke. Like, what do you mean?
00:15Me and my younger brother have albinism. My father is very dark-skinned and my older brother is very
00:21dark-skinned as well. It's just a gene that is hereditary. That's all it is, really. It's lack
00:28of pigment and hair, skin, and eyes. Also with that, you get into sadness, which is movement of
00:33the eyes, which is why my eyes move back and forth.
00:38We got teased a lot because we're so fair. This one day, this boy, we got into it. He would
00:44bother me every day after school. He would make fun of me. And one day, we just got into a
00:48fight.
00:49I was like, I'm not gonna take this anymore. And we were rolling around in the snow. We were fighting.
00:53But even other than having albinism, then I started getting teased for being too skinny.
00:59So it was just, like, one thing after another. I was just tall. I was always the one in the
01:04back of the line.
01:07I became interested in modeling when I was around 14.
01:12When I first started modeling, everything was titled, like, the albino model. And I didn't want to be the
01:18albino model. I'm Deandra Forrest. This is who I am before anything. I wanted to be booked because
01:25people love my look. People write me all the time on Facebook and Instagram, and they'll ask me
01:32how they can explain what albinism is to their children that have albinism. I'm, like, very responsive.
01:39I love helping them with that. In certain places, people with albinism aren't safe.
01:45In Tanzania, there's witch doctors that believe that if you mutilate the limbs of people with albinism,
01:54that they're good luck charms. So I've worked with ACN, Assistant Children in Need. ACN has a safe
02:00house for children and adults with albinism just to keep them safe. My parents always told me and all
02:10of us that we're beautiful, that we're no different than anyone else. I love the way I look. I'm very
02:16comfortable in my skin now. I love my full lips, my blonde hair. We're all different in some way, and
02:25that's okay.
