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  • An Albino Girl's Controversial Yet Life-Changing Makeover

  • Posted by Kristen on September 1, 2010 at 04:58PM
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  • I watched a segment on 20/20 last night (I had TiVo'd it, so I'm not sure when it aired) called "Albinism: Caught Between Dark and Light." It really pulled at my heart strings -- especially the story of 15-year-old Angel Stillman, a girl with albinism who has had to transfer in and out of eight different schools since preschool due to being teased. All she desperately wants is to fit in and have at least one friend. Sniff.

  • Eventually, she takes classes online to escape the taunting and ridicule, but that only makes her feel more isolated. So she decides to give public school one more try, but first she has (what she considers) an extreme makeover … adding lowlights to her white hair and dying her lashes and eyebrows a darker color. (Check out these shocking celebrity hair makeovers.) This is actually controversial in the albinism community, known as "passing," since they are aiming to hide their condition. However, by undergoing this extreme makeover, Stillman's been able to form friendships. "They get a look on the outside and then they want to talk to me and then want to see what's on the inside and then they want to be closer friends," she says.

  • Stillman's makeover decision makes me feel conflicted because on one hand, it saddens me that she has to deny who she is in order to fit in. But on the other hand, I wonder why didn't she consider this makeover sooner? And I am in awe of how a few beauty tweaks changed her life for the better. What do you think?

  • *Photo courtesy of ABC News

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    • Member Comments

    Your Comment:

    • I was wrongly diagnosed as an albino when I was a little girl. I am very close, but I do have some pigment. My eyes are blue, but my eyesight is very poor. When I seen Angel on the show my heart went out to her. My family moved all over the country when I was growing up. It was always the same thing everywhere I went. Kids would call me "Bug Eyes" and "Casper" I had girls shove me a few times. I always ignored them and they decided it wasn't worth the effort. Since I have become an adult I have dyed my hair and eyebrows once. Although I hated my hair color when I was little, I have learned to love and appreciate it now. ( I will never show gray hairs, and women fry their hair trying to get the color I have naturally.) Now I am 35, I have a wonderful husband, two handsome young men, and a beautiful baby girl. I guess what I am trying to say is hang in there Angel. It will get better for you. Kids can be cruel and mean, but don't let them think for a second that they are better than you because of your differences.

      by crystal_alexander_richmond Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 11:18AM Report as inappropriate

    • I know from personal experience high school kids can be very cruel. I agree with other comments that she did something many women do and if it gives her a boost in confidence more power to her.

      by CountryGirl78 Monday, April 25, 2011 at 07:20AM Report as inappropriate

    • I personally think the comment "Why didn't she decide to do this sooner?" is a little insensitive. Is what she's doing changing who she is to be liked? No, she's dying her hair and putting on some makeup. Girls and women and boys and men do this too, because they like how they'll look, or to fit in, or to get attention... She's not a sell-out. It is unfortunate that she was teased, and that there were so many judgmental and cruel kids who couldn't see past her appearance.

      by LipglossandSpandex Saturday, April 9, 2011 at 07:57PM Report as inappropriate

    • This is nothing new. I was a boy with bad hair and thick glasses back in the 1980\'s, and I had no friends and was teased and beaten up mercilessly. When I was 16 I got contacts and a decent haircut and my life was transformed. While I am a big supporter of \"inner beauty\" and teaching children to respect people for who they are and not how they look, I also am enough of a realist to know that it sometimes is better in the big view for someone to make some simple changes to fit in better.

      by michael_boehm Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 04:28PM Report as inappropriate

    • Women that don\'t dye their hair are few and far between. I think it\'s totally normal for her to dye her hair. She has been subjected to pain in her life and it\'s something simple she can do. I know plenty of women to get their lashed tinted, get permanent false lashes... highlights, low lights and cover their gray... Angel\'s transformation seems normal to me.

      by califrniadreamn Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 02:10PM Report as inappropriate

    • Is that she needed to change her appearance in order to have friends. It shows how incredibly shallow American children are being taught to be.

      by Apples101 Wednesday, November 3, 2010 at 10:28AM Report as inappropriate

    • Nothing wrong with using cosmetics to make yourself happy and improve social confidence - especially in high school! Later on I think you\'ll realize what the rest of us can plainly see : your fair coloring makes you not just pretty, but strikingly beautiful!

      by partner Sunday, October 24, 2010 at 01:27PM Report as inappropriate

    • This reminds me of when the deaf population considers when a deaf person is able to get cochlear implants being a \"sellout\". Give me a break. If your life can be enhanced by something relatively easy and totally harmless, you need to do what\'s right for you. What this girl has done is a no-brainer.

      by Annie2 Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 11:07AM Report as inappropriate

    • If this girl did not have albinism this would be a non-issue. I draw my eyebrows on every day.. and darken my lashes with mascara. I also have my hair professionally highlighted and lowlighted. Does this mean I am hiding who I am? Of course not. Every female I know has things they are insecure about. This girl is no different. The problem here doesn\'t lie with her wanting to feel prettier and taking steps to do that (after all, isn\'t that why we buy make-up, get haircuts and buy cute clothes?) The problem is that not only was this girl not respected as a fellow human when she didn\'t wear make-up and change her hair, she is not being respected not for her decision to do the exact same thing the rest of us do on a daily basis. Its her life.. if make-up and a new hairstyle makes her life happier, so be it. Hopefully her friends that she is making are good people and they will stand by her no matter what.

      by gena_sissy_garner_crawford Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 10:48AM Report as inappropriate

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