Model With Vitiligo Surprises 10-Year-Old Fan Who Has the Same Condition

Winnie Harlow could be a role model for anyone who needs a lesson in confidence, but for 10-year-old April Star, she’s a particularly special influence.

Harlow and April both have a skin condition called vitiligo. Despite facing horrible bullying in high school, Harlow went on to find international modeling success and most recently appeared on the cover of Ebony magazine’s September issue.

On Thursday’s episode of “The Real,” April, an aspiring model, told the show’s co-hosts that the most confident person she knows on Instagram is Harlow. April keeps her own Instagram account called “redefinemybeauty,” where she shares photos of herself to inspire others to embrace their differences. Co-host Jeannie Mai then calls Harlow on speakerphone, but it turns out the superstar is actually backstage.

Below you can watch the tearjerking exchange that then ensued between Harlow and April.

“The confidence I have now, I had none of at her age,” Harlow says in the clip. “So when I see her all over the Internet and social media, I see the little girl that I wish I could have been.”