We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Erika Page a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Erika, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I got vitiligo when I was seven years old. Vitiligo is an autoimmune disease without a cure that causes loss of pigment in the skin and hair. By the time I was in my twenties, I had lost 100% of my skin’s pigment and today I am still losing pigment in my hair. For most of my life, I lived with white patches all over my skin—and frequently dealt with stares and a severe lack of self-esteem and at times, panic attacks, as a result. Vitiligo impacted every minute of every day of my life, and was the lens through which I saw the world—and myself.

Only 1% of the world lives with vitiligo and at the time, there were no models, Barbies or brand campaigns with vitiligo. I felt alone and misunderstood. I started researching on the internet to find resources and support for vitiligo—but I only found medical pictures and a personal blog about treating vitiligo. It seemed like no one was talking about what it was actually like to live with the condition: being stared at in the grocery store, covering your vitiligo with makeup, or someone refusing to shake your hand because of your skin. I had built a career in marketing and communications focused on long-form writing and social media. I felt like I had both the personal and technical experience to fill this gap on the internet and create a space for other women like me to feel seen and heard.

In 2016, I launched Living Dappled, a digital magazine and community for women with vitiligo that helps them find health and happiness through education and support. Today we have been around for almost 9 years and have a thriving community of ‘dappled darlings.’

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m Erika Page—I’m the Founder, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Living Dappled, a digital magazine and community for women with vitiligo, an autoimmune disease that causes loss of pigment in the skin and hair. Through our website, email, and social media, we provide vitiligo education and storytelling to help women find health and happiness as they live with vitiligo. We tell stories about what it’s like to live with vitiligo, bring readers the latest research and education, and provide outlets to share stories and experiences.

I got vitiligo when I was seven years old and lost 100% of my skin’s pigment by the time I was in my twenties. A career in marketing and communications, combined with my life-consuming experience with vitiligo, inspired me to fill a gap in the marketplace and create an inspirational safe-haven for women to feel seen and get the resources and support they need to live with vitiligo.

One of my favorite things about what we do is how we engage the community. We partner with our own community members to share their stories and experiences to inspire others. This brand is truly about women living with vitiligo sharing their experiences to help other women living with vitiligo. It’s inspiring to see someone living with vitiligo who has found joy in their skin. It’s even more inspiring to see that person reaching out to help the next person who might still be struggling to find happiness. And that’s the magic of what we do.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

For much of our existence as a brand, we were creating a conversation that did not exist on social media. When we launched Living Dappled eight years ago, those with vitiligo were not often sharing pictures and stories about themselves, and brands were not providing education about this autoimmune condition. Our social media presence was built by filling a gap in the marketplace. We were providing a new, valuable resource that connected with people emotionally by showing them that they were not alone, and provided verified, educational information that did not exist elsewhere.

Today, I’m thankful that the story has changed. Today we have Barbies, models, and influencers with vitiligo—and our strategy has shifted to follow suit. We’ve always had a strong UGC strategy of sharing pictures from our community and putting their faces and stories at the front and center of what we do. This past year, we added to that by building an exciting partnership with six women with vitiligo who serve as the faces and leaders of the brand and help create content on social media each week. These intentional collaborations have allowed us to show up authentically and meet the needs of our audience.

If you are just starting to build your audience, I would encourage you to think strategically about the unique value that you bring to the marketplace. It’s okay to do the same thing as someone else—but what about the way you do it or your personal experience is exciting? Figure out what that is and lean into it.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Living Dappled was born out of the melding of the two biggest parts of my life—my personal experience and my career—and fueled by a heart-felt mission of filling a need in the vitiligo community. Personally, I had lived with vitiligo since I was seven and had lost 100% of my skin’s pigment to the condition. I had lived through more than two decades of stages with vitiligo—through grade school, college, and the workplace; through dating and marriage; through spotted skin and full depigmentation. I had an authentic, lived experience that not only inspired the mission of Living Dappled, but made me relatable to my audience. At the same time, I had built a career in marketing and communications. The work I was doing around branding, social media, writing, and more for my full-time jobs over the years was fueling my ability to show up for the vitiligo community in a way that leveraged those same skills. Putting my two ‘superpowers’ together has cemented the brand’s ability to show up the way it has today.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://livingdappled.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/livingdappled
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/livingdappled
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/living-dappled/
• Twitter: https://x.com/livingdappled

Image Credits

Shawna Whitty
Sandy Swagger Jones
Sound Snap Photography
(see file names for which one goes to which)