On Monday night, model Chantelle Brown-Young watched her own elimination from “America’s Next Top Model,” after judges said she was “too tight.”
The 20-year-old Toronto native — who wasn’t able to reveal her grim reality-TV fate to friends and family before the episode aired — says they didn’t take the news well.
“[There was] an uproar on social media,” Brown-Young tells The Post. “I said, ‘Calm down. It’s just a show — and a reality show at that.’ I was cracking up.”
After all, she had modeling offers waiting for her when she returned home to Canada, after taping the show a couple of months back, including a chance to travel to Barcelona to be the face of Spanish brand Desigual’s fall campaign.
“Desigual stands for being unusual and unique and atypical, so they figured I’d be the perfect person for that,” says Brown-Young, who knows a thing or two about being different.
She has vitiligo, a skin disease that causes pigment to disappear, resulting in white patches on her dark skin.
“They had a new line that had a lot of dots. And some of my skin patterns are dots. In the campaign video, there’s a part where the dot on a scarf lines up perfectly with a dot I have on my waist, and I thought that was the coolest thing ever.”
The disease began to manifest when she was 4 years old. It first appeared on her stomach, then affected her face and hands.
“Once people started making comments, I started to realize there’s something about me that’s not like everyone else,” she says. “I was teased and called names.”
But Brown-Young didn’t let the cruel remarks get into her pretty little head.
“I just decided I’m going to tell myself that I am beautiful and this is how I may be for the rest of my life. I need to accept it, embrace it and enjoy it.”
After quitting school at 17, she worked at a call center and pursued modeling. “America’s Next Top Model” host Tyra Banks discovered Brown-Young on Instagram.
The stunner doesn’t see her patchy skin as an advantage — or disadvantage.
“My skin is going to make some people not work with me, but [others] work with me.”
Besides, the catwalker thinks she appeals to a mass audience, not just those affected with vitiligo.
“Everyone can relate to being different. It’s not just me trying to be a role model. It’s my genuine opinion that it’s those quirks that make you gorgeous. Let whatever quirks you have shine.”