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When Winnie Harlow was 16 years old, she applied for a position at Sephora in her hometown of Toronto. She never ended up getting the job. Though rather inconsequential in the long run (how many of us were denied a job we really wanted as a teenager?), it’s a story that has taken on unexpected relevance for Harlow, now 28.

For one, she’s now world famous. After appearing on

America’s Next Top Model

Making the Cut

Germany’s Next Top Model

Lemonade

But there’s another reason Harlow has brought up Sephora today. A little over a year ago, she launched Cay Skin, a suncare-focused beauty brand she founded after enduring a debilitating sunburn during a photoshoot in the Bahamas. A skincare brand is no longer a surprising venture for a globally recognized model — but right now, as she sits in a car, heading to a Washington, DC, airport to fly to Toronto for Cay’s Canadian launch, she can’t help but feel a little special. “We will be in all Sephora stores,” she says, proudly. It’s all very full-circle. “Going back there now and bringing home this baby that I’ve created to all of Canada is such a…” she trails off. “I don’t even know the word. I’m just overwhelmed.” 

Harlow’s life hasn’t always been this picturesque. When the model, born Chantelle Whitney Brown-Young, was four, she began developing white patches on her otherwise melanated skin, a symptom of the auto-immune condition vitiligo. Though Harlow was lucky enough to grow up in a supportive home — her grandmother, who once reprimanded her mother for pointing out the spots, stressed how important it was for the young girl to feel confident in herself — she still struggled at school, where her peers teased her by calling her names like “zebra” and “cow.” “I always felt alienated,” she admits of her childhood. “When I was a kid, I felt so much like I was the only person in the world with vitiligo.”

That was before Instagram, which launched in 2010 and changed the trajectory of Harlow’s life. “Being on social media, I could see other people [like myself],” the model says, noting that it was the first time she didn’t feel alone. These days, one doesn’t need to dig deep to find all manner of complaints about the innate toxicity of social media, particularly as it relates to the promotion of unrealistic beauty standards. But hearing Harlow’s story, one can’t help but see her current success and happiness as a testament to its capability for good, too. Where else could someone find a community for people with a rare skin condition while also getting the attention of internationally renowned photographers and finding love with a six-foot-nine NBA star?

In her telling, Harlow had amassed more than 100,000 followers on Instagram by the time she was 18. The app was still in its infancy back then, but already, the model was finding work through the platform, doing shoots “here and there” for people in Toronto who asked her to pose in their beanies and sweatsuits. “I had built my following up just from posting and talking about my experience with vitiligo,” Harlow explains about that early visibility. “People would say, ‘My mom has vitiligo and I showed her your page. She’s had it since she was X amount of years old, and now she’s so confident looking at your pictures.’”

Coincidentally, Instagram is also how she landed on the 21st cycle of

America’s Next Top Model

Alas, Harlow did not win her season. She was eliminated second, and, after fighting her way back into the competition, was eliminated again a couple of episodes shy of the finale, ultimately finishing sixth. Again, Banks told Harlow she had “something special.” But the young model had already reoriented her priorities. “After coming off the show, I was actually going to quit modeling,” she confesses. “I was going to go back to school for journalism.”

It wasn’t until famed photographer Nick Knight found her — yet again, through Instagram — and asked her to fly out to London for a photoshoot that Harlow decided to give it one more go. “That was when I was like, ‘You know what? Who am I to not walk through this door that God is opening for me?’” she says. So at the last minute, she decided to make the international trek that would start it all. “He gave me my first campaign, which was for Diesel. That was the beginning of it.”

The beginning of it, indeed. That Diesel campaign, which celebrated tolerance and inclusivity, launched within months of the conclusion of

ANTM

ANTM

The model remembers those early jobs being quite “scary,” noting how strange it felt to be launched from a sheltered Canadian upbringing straight into the fast-paced life of an international model. “At the time, I still lived with my mom. I was probably, like, 19. Going around downtown in Toronto was still like, ‘Wow, the world is so big!’” she recalls with a chuckle. “So taking flights everywhere for jobs and being in new cities and stuff was so, so foreign. It was scary to just be going out into the world by yourself and trying to make something of yourself.”

Harlow has done more than make something of herself, yet she still seems to be driven by a tireless sense of perfectionism. There’s a palpable dedication to her craft, whether she’s storming a runway, posing in front of a camera, or selecting ingredients for a new Cay Skin lotion. “I always want to feel like whatever I’m doing, I worked really hard for it,” she says.

She cites her burgeoning acting career as an example. “I’ve done a few roles in practice,” she says, referring to her bit part in Jimmy Giannopoulos’ recent slasher film

Alone at Night

In the meantime, Harlow has no problem further indulging in fashion. That’s always been her first love, after all. It’s what attracted her to modeling, and it’s why she relished her stint on the second season of

Making the Cut

Germany’s Next Top Model

Making the Cut

“A part of my job is getting to see fashions before the rest of the world even gets to see them. I’m in the fittings and backstage and all that. I’m wearing the clothes. I’m seeing the different prints and textiles,” she says of the perspective she brought to the panel. “It’s been really fun to take that knowledge and to bring it to new, raw, fresh talent that is so passionate about what they do.” She loved the gig so much that she signed on to reprise her role for season three. Unfortunately, her immune system had other plans. “I got COVID a few days before filming,” she lets off with a sigh.

The upside? Without the show on her plate, Harlow had more time to dedicate to her blossoming relationship with Washington Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma, whom the model has dated since 2020. They first met over Instagram, after Kuzma slid into her DMs during the height of the pandemic. (“He shot his shot,” she said in 2021 of their courting.) Before long, the pair began talking every day over FaceTime, and after a month, Kuzma convinced the model to visit him in LA. After flying out, she never left.

“We were kind of just meeting, but it was the pandemic, so it was like making a leap of faith,” Harlow tells me of her decision to move cross-country for love. “Being in the pandemic, you had time to learn about somebody and get to know someone more than you did in regular life, when we have work and so many things pulling us in different directions.” It’s a good thing, too — with life back to normal, Harlow stresses that communication has been key to making their relationship work. “Both of our lives are so busy,” she says. “His [schedule] is more structured. Once the NBA schedule comes out, you know what you’re doing for the rest of the year. Whereas mine, I may not know what I’m doing next week, let alone a month in advance.”

As a model and a professional athlete, Harlow and Kuzma are the quintessential power couple, and pictures of the pair — stepping out for date nights, backstage at basketball games, posing in campaigns for Tiffany & Co. — show a duo that’s just as fashionable as they are powerful. For his part, Kuzma readily acknowledges that Harlow has elevated his personal style. “One thing I have learned is how to completely finish a look correctly,” the basketball star says over email. “Winnie is very detailed with every single thing, [from] what the accessories look like [to] what attitude to rock with it. She’s really leveled up my energy.”

Harlow doesn’t disagree. She claims she didn’t even know Kuzma was into fashion when they met. “It was the pandemic! We met each other in sweats,” she laughs. “But after we got back to real life, I think he tapped into more of what his style and his fashion is.” These days, she’s like his stylist. “He’ll try on his outfits on FaceTime with me and be like, ‘Do you think this hat or this hat? What about these shoes with this ’fit? Or should I put this jacket with this?’”

When styling herself, Harlow prides herself on versatility. She compares herself to a chameleon, saying, “Whatever feels good, I like to wear. Whatever mood I’m in for, I like to wear.” Like many models of her ilk, Harlow prioritizes comfort when she’s off-duty: “I wear a lot of heels for work so when it comes to my personal style, I like to find things that are fly but comfy.” Lately, she’s been particularly fond of her Rick Owens sneakers; she happens to be wearing them for her flight today. “I definitely need to buy a new pair,” she laughs. “I feel like they just go with everything.”

Harlow can dress up or dress down, but one thing she always wants to be is warm. In the winter, she’s always insulated with a coat. “Different colored coats, different lengths, from bombers to jean jackets to trenches,” she lists. “I just love layering a coat over a sick hoodie set and putting some kicks with it.” Of course, she’d much rather it just be summer all the time. As a self-identified “island ting” — and a proud Leo — the model ranks the warmer months above all. This summer, she’s excited to “wear bikinis and less clothes” in her native Jamaica, which she plans to visit “again and again.” “I just want to be at a Carnival, dancing and wuking my ways.”

Between visits to the homeland, Harlow will be working to continue growing her presence in the beauty space. She’s aware that Black, female brand founders are rare in the industry. But rather than let the pressure get to her, she has chosen to use it as a “driving force” for success.

It’s something she’s eager to share with those closest to her back home. “A lot of times, I have launches or covers, these big deals in my life that I’m so proud of, but my family’s not there to experience it with me,” she admits. Though Harlow has normalized traveling as a constant of the “model life” (she later clarifies that she doesn’t actually want to be called a professional supermodel at all; she prefers the term “role model”) — where collecting passport stamps from destinations like Paris, Milan, and London can start to feel like a hobby — nothing excites her more than the opportunity to celebrate a professional milestone at home in Toronto. “To see my sister, my mom, my friends, my family, and have them there to experience this thing that I created and am bringing home, it’s such an honor.

“I am just a girl from Toronto who went to school like everyone else and had my experiences like everyone else,” she responds when asked to take stock of what she’s created since moving to Los Angeles. “It’s a blessing and an honor to be able to continue to push and thrive and work at something that evokes passion out of me and out of other people.”