London, Dec 5 (IANS) After making her debut at this year's Victoria's Secret (VS) Fashion Show, model-activist Winnie Harlow, who suffers from vitiligo, which affects the pigment of the skin, says being the first model with the condition to walk the runway was a "huge honour".

In an interview with Teen Vogue, Harlow said: "Any step toward a truly equal and diverse modelling industry is great, but for a huge brand like Victoria's Secret to include models with skin conditions like vitiligo is a huge step to normalising it in the entire industry.

"I hope that there's many more in the future. We need to work toward diversity, not for the sake of it, but to make it the norm. And I hope that this is a big step toward that."

The 24-year-old also admitted that walking the catwalk made her feel powerful and confident, reported femalefirst.co.uk.

"Walking VS was one of my biggest goals as a model, maybe even my top one, so achieving it made me feel more powerful and confident in my career than I ever have before.

"I'm excited about taking that confidence and letting it show in everything that I do, whether it's amazing things in the modelling world or new things that I've never thought about doing before. I feel like the sky is the limit now," added Harlow.

--IANS sim/sug/