Her skin is so pale that she wears Factor 100 sun cream on even a dull summer day.
Yet, incredibly, 23-year-old Darcel de Vlugt was born black.
In a case of extreme rarity, the skin condition vitiligo has taken the pigment from her entire body.
Experts say they have never come across such a striking change and she says: 'I have a hard job convincing people that I was actually born with dark skin.'
Darcel's parents Peter and Charmaine, both from Trinidad, noticed white spots on her forearm and forehead when she was five.
Doctors diagnosed vitiligo, the same condition said to have affected Michael Jackson.
By the age of seven, white patches had appeared on her legs along with white spots on the rest of her body.
These gradually grew bigger until, when she was 17, the transformation was complete.
'My father worked for the United Nations and we travelled the world a lot with his job,' said Darcel, now a fashion designer in London.
'My family believe the stress of moving at such a young age brought on the condition.
'At the age of 12 I tried UV laser treatment, but it didn't work and by then, 80 per cent of my body was white so I decided to leave it.'
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