TIKTOKKER Nadine Breaty looks the epitome of fresh-faced youth at age 22, all except for one thing – the white streaks in her hair.
The influencer, from Germany, has been trolled relentlessly for what has now become her signature look – but she has 5.1 million followers online, many of whom love it.
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Nadine has a condition called piebaldism, which causes an absence of melanin in the cells that contribute to hair, eye and skin colour – and so while most of her hair is brown, patches at the front have turned completely white.
Her videos show how she’s transitioned from trolled to trendsetting, as she leaps around her room in time to music in front of a bemused-looking cat.
“Having natural white hair,” she captions one of her videos, “[and] trying to hide it because it’s not cool.”
She gives a withering glance towards those who have called her “grandma” or “weirdo” in “society before 2020” and reveals that many comments now are positive instead, with admirers gushing, “OMG so beautiful, so pretty – I wish I had that!”
In another video, she sums up, “When you have grey hair at a young age and everyone bullies you – and you become a trendsetter in 2021!”
She’s in good company – famous fashion blogger Victoria of In The Frow has boasted hair that she’d deliberately dyed silver, which became her distinctive trademark too – and many other internet personalities have released photoshoots which get in on the trend.
Followers today ask incredulously, “How could they bully someone with such cool hair?”
While she still gets her fair share of trolls, she is proving that her unusual features make her distinctive and unusual – and, with millions of followers, that can’t be a bad thing.
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In other real-life stories, a 40-year-old mum of three is trolled for refusing to dress her age – but she’s defiant.
Another woman endured much more extreme trolling, with a hater creating 120 fake social media profiles to attack her.
Meanwhile this young mum is trolled for being a single parent at 22 as she leaves her baby to cry.