The Sims 4 is currently in its celebratory season as it marks the 24th anniversary of The Sims series. Continuing in this season, a Sims Express Delivery has just arrived for the base game, adding on a new skin option for Sims: vitiligo. Over the years, The Sims 4 has been working to expand the representation of its players, which has meant adding in lots of different features for Sims. Examples include hearing aids, glucose patches, scarring, gender pronoun customization, birth marks, and freckles. Now, vitiligo is available to apply to your Sims via the Skin Details option in Create-A-Sim.
What Is Vitiligo?
Vitiligo is a long-term condition in which pale white patches appear on the skin, caused by lack of melanin (pigment) in the skin. Melanocytes are cells that produce melanin, which gives your skin its color. If there aren’t enough melanocytes working and they don’t produce enough melanin, you can get vitiligo.
Vitiligo can appear anywhere on the skin and come in different forms. It can be focused on one part of the body, or appear all over. It can also manifest symmetrically. Vitiligo can also affect the color of your hair, beard, eyelashes, and eyebrows.
Vitiligo generally doesn’t create discomfort, but can be itchy. The pale areas of skin are also notably more vulnerable to sunburn. Vitiligo is not life threatening or contagious.
Vitiligo can affect people of all ages.
How Vitiligo Works in The Sims 4
Vitiligo is available for Sims aged from Infant to Elder. It can be applied to your Sim’s face, torso, arms, and legs. At this time, you cannot directly change the color of the vitiligo patches; they adjust colors according to your Sim’s skin color. However, some vitiligo options come with variants. Vitiligo can be applied, changed, or removed at any time in the game simply by going into Skin Details in Create-A-Sim. Vitiligo can be used with all other face and body details except for birth marks. Tattoos and body hair can be applied with vitiligo.
As of yet, vitiligo does not affect your Sim’s hair color, although this may change in the future. It is noted that vitiligo does not affect gameplay in any way.
Vitiligo options can be found under Skin Details from Face or Body in Create-A-Sim.
Collaboration With Winnie Harlow
The Sims has partnered up with supermodel and beauty entrepreneur Winnie Harlow, who has vitiligo, to introduce this feature to the game. As a player of The Sims since she was a youth, Winnie is passionate about representation in the game and is pleased that vitiligo has been introduced. She believes that it’s important for players to embrace what makes them unique in both the game and in real life. If you wish to play as Winnie in the game, her Hollywood home and Simified self can be downloaded from the Gallery in The Sims 4.
