She used to hide her vitiligo spots. But today, she highlights them with art.
Meet Amara who creates art out of her vitiligo.
Meet Amara who creates art out of her vitiligo.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00People see it and they're not automatically thinking, you know, what's wrong, they're
00:07thinking more so, oh, what is that?
00:09It's been my therapy, it's been my meditation, and it's gotten me to a place of self-acceptance
00:15and celebration.
00:16My name is Amara Aleman, I go by Amara Artspots online, and I created an art form called Artspots
00:28where I outline and make designs on my vitiligo.
00:32Vitiligo is a skin condition that affects the pigment of your skin, and it is an autoimmune
00:37condition, so it's basically my body deciding that my skin is the enemy and attacking it
00:43in a way.
00:50I typically do a color that complements the outfit I'm wearing, so today we'll probably
00:55go with purple and black or purple and white, depending on what comes out once I start painting.
01:04It's definitely like a meditation, a therapy, it helps me zone in and slow down.
01:09If I'm gonna go out, I typically do it every day, I consider it as part of getting dressed
01:14for me.
01:18I was diagnosed over five years now.
01:21I have been training to dance for my whole life, and I was finally doing it professionally.
01:25I was doing my dream job.
01:27I was working for Disney, and I was portraying a specific character, and so that character
01:33does not have vitiligo, and there's no way around that, you know?
01:37I have to look like the character.
01:40I thought, you know, well, I can't do it, so I'm gonna quit.
01:43I still didn't have the tools to tell myself, you know, maybe I can create my own lane,
01:49maybe I can create opportunities for people like me in the dance world, because I was
01:54still very insecure.
01:56Alright, so this is a good example of a piece of clothing that was modified to cover my
02:02spot.
02:03So this was once just a spaghetti-strapped sundress, and I cut up the bottom of the dress
02:08to create these long sleeves, and every piece of clothing always had to have the little
02:13thumb hole in it, so that I could put my arm through it, and then poke my thumb through
02:19the hole, and cover as much of my hand and arm as possible.
02:24The way that ArtSpots happened is very organic and authentic to the way I've always been,
02:29even before vitiligo.
02:31I have always been a creative person.
02:34I've always thought outside of the box.
02:37I had started getting into TikTok as a consumer.
02:39I was seeing all these people with a lot of differences being celebrated, and I was like,
02:43wow, this is really cool.
02:46I did a simple green outline, and I put it on TikTok, and that blew up as soon as I posted it.
02:56Today, for my TikTok, I'm going to recreate one of my first viral videos, which at the
03:01time, I still didn't have ArtSpots fully developed, so the design I did was very simple.
03:07That's me from a year ago, and then that's me now.
03:10Here's the first shot.
03:11I know that I'm in a different place in terms of confidence now, so it's cool to see me
03:15then, because the shots that I would take are so reflective of my confidence then.
03:19I would barely show my face, and they were so quick, and it's like I was showing myself,
03:24but in the quickest, most get-over-it way possible.
03:38I am very inspired by a lot of artists and music videos that I see.
03:42I did one look in particular that I really liked, which was kind of a recreation of a
03:48Cape Herring experiment that he did with Grace Jones, where he painted her body with these
03:53graphic lines, and it was so striking and so iconic to me.
03:59So, yeah, I definitely wanted to recreate that with my spots, and things like that just
04:02really inspire me.
04:03People who push boundaries artistically, who do things that maybe we haven't seen before,
04:09or just do things that make you look twice, you know?
04:13I recently went to my 10-year high school reunion, and it was something I had been really
04:20afraid to do ever since my diagnosis, because it's only been five years or so that I've
04:25had vitiligo.
04:26So, in high school, I didn't have it, so no one knew me that way.
04:29I did kind of a tattoo rose design on my arm, and it really helped me feel more confident
04:37than I think I would have if I hadn't painted my spots for the event.
04:44I could wake up tomorrow with another spot somewhere that I wasn't expecting or wanting.
04:48If you look back at my content from a year ago, the pattern of my spots on my hand is
04:53completely different, and a lot of it has faded and changed shape since then.
04:58So, having that adaptability to wake up every day not being sure of what I'm going to look
05:03like is something that at first definitely, definitely triggered a lot of anxiety in me.
05:08But when it's something that happens every day, you wake up every day with that same
05:12feeling, you learn how to cope with it.
05:15For example, I have some spots that are heart-shaped on my body, and I really love them, but I
05:20know that they're not going to be like that forever.
05:22So, I take my time to outline them and take pictures of them and embrace them while I
05:27have them.
05:32It changed a lot about how I perceive myself, and so to be doing this, which is like the
05:37opposite of where I started, like from going from hiding it to celebrating it and embracing
05:42it, it's just something I really hope I'm able to share with other people with the condition.