“Those Exist?” Inside the Weekend That Built Our Retreat For Women With Vitiligo

A woman with long dark hair laughs as she runs through an arch of raised arms on the beach at Living Dappled’s Founders Weekend. She and the women around her have vitiligo.

Shawna Whitty

On our first morning together, a woman on the beach asked us, “Those exist?” She meant retreats for women with vitiligo. The answer: now they do.

For ten years, Living Dappled has lived mostly on your screen. This fall, we brought it into a house. Founders Weekend was a small, intentional gathering of women from our community, and the last step toward building the Dappled Darlings Retreat, which takes place for the first time in October 2027.

We named it for what it was: the foundation of what comes next. We had spent months planning this retreat hand in hand with our community, and now it was time to put it into practice. We invited seven women to join us in Murrells Inlet, SC. Here’s what happened when we stopped imagining it and walked through the door.

How we got here, with a doormat that says “welcome home”

We began building the Dappled Darlings Retreat behind closed doors with our community in early 2026, through surveys and focus groups. We announced the retreat in July, opened our interest list, and have spent the months since shaping the program with that list, along with other contributors and collaborators. Founders Weekend was our chance to finish building it the same way we started: with the women it’s for.

Why go to that trouble? Because so many women in our community have waited a lifetime to be in a room like this. When we do it, I want to do it right. That means more than dates, a location, and a headcount. It means the program, and it means the moments in between: the free time, the space to talk, the sense that it’s safe to share. You can’t plan that in a spreadsheet. You have to practice it.

We invited seven women from our community to join us. These women weren’t just guests, they were cofounders of this retreat; stepping behind the scenes to both experience it and help us finish building it. Six of these women live with vitiligo, and two are moms raising children with vitiligo—one of whom lives with vitiligo herself. Bringing caregivers into the room was important. A retreat for caregivers is part of the dream, and these women came to experience the weekend and to help us build what comes next.

The vision for our retreat space was intentional. This was about more than decoration; it was about setting up a home where women feel welcome. From the moment these women stepped through the front door, we wanted them to feel they belonged. We had a custom doormat made that read, “Welcome home, Dappled Darlings.” A simple reminder that you belong here, just as you are.

From there, our founders were welcomed even further with gift bags in their rooms, WATSKIN hats on the dining room table just for them, a connection board to sign up for similar interests, and a spread of appetizers and snacks. That was the welcome. What happened next was the reason we came.

Women with vitiligo sit together on sofas and chairs in a bright living room at Living Dappled’s Founders Weekend. One woman talks while the others listen, some holding journals, with a box of tissues on the coffee table. — Photo Credit: Shawna Whitty

Inside the program, from the first night to our Full Bloom dinner

On the first night, we didn’t talk about vitiligo at all, on purpose. We talked about remembering who you are beneath your skin. At the end of the day, most of us just want to move through everyday life comfortably, and part of that is simply getting to be you. That surprised people, and it landed.

From there, the program moves through an arc: remembering who you are, processing how you think and feel about your skin, and then looking ahead—how you want to approach your day-to-day, and how you’ll handle the moments that are going to feel hard. We didn’t get to try it all, but we did a guided mirror meditation and other reflective sessions, and the response was overwhelmingly warm.

Woven throughout our time together were sessions for personal stories. Five minutes of uninterrupted time for each woman, and an organic conversation after that. It was, perhaps, the real highlight of the weekend. A moment to both feel seen and help others feel seen, too.

The weekend ended with a celebratory evening—what we’re calling the Full Bloom dinner. On the first night, we had anonymously picked names. Then, at the dinner, we each brought written words of encouragement. We read them out loud. And it’s possible that we passed a tissue box around as we did. After dinner, we headed to the beach for portraits, both as a group and separately. A chance to capture the feeling of belonging and remember who you are.

Three women laugh together on the beach at Living Dappled’s Founders Weekend, with the ocean behind them in soft golden light. The woman in the center, in a white tank dress, claps her hands, with vitiligo visible on her hands and arms. — Photo Credit: Shawna Whitty

The 7 a.m. moment none of us could have planned

One morning, a few of us walked down to the beach early to watch the sunrise together. We were standing there taking in the first light when a dog on a leash came bounding into the middle of our group. His owner followed, smiling and apologizing, eyes on her very excited dog. Our eyes were on her—and our mouths were open. She had vitiligo from head to toe.

Looking past her dog, she saw someone’s legs, and said, “Oh, I see vitiligo.” She looked up, surprised. I quickly blurted out, “We all have vitiligo.” I explained it the shortest way I knew how: we were there on a retreat for women with vitiligo. She asked, “Those exist?” And I said, “Well, now they do.” She wanted to know everything.

Every single one of us had goosebumps. As we kept talking, we learned she was on a two-week vacation from another state. The odds of our paths crossing on that stretch of sand, at that hour, were so slim that it felt meant to be. I took her email so I could send her details, and we walked back to the house unable to talk about anything else. It was the first thing we told everyone at breakfast.

That moment stuck with us long after Founders Weekend. The joy and surprise of finding out that a space for women with vitiligo exists echoed everything we were trying to build that weekend. It felt like a beautiful reminder of why we were there.

Women in pink and floral dresses hold hands overhead in a circle on the beach at Living Dappled’s Founders Weekend. A woman in a pink striped dress laughs in the center, lit by the late-day sun. — Photo Credit: Shawna Whitty

What I carried home

This weekend marked a real pivot for Living Dappled. For ten years, we’ve been online. Planning an in-person gathering is not a small thing. It takes months of time, investment, and attention to every single detail, plus a team working quietly behind the scenes in a way that supports the experience without intruding on it.

What we learned is that the program is strong as it is. Most of our changes are logistical, like moving a session to a different part of the house. There was real gratitude in the room, not only for being together, but for the chance to process all of it in real time.

Because our weekend was shorter than the full retreat will be, we walked through the parts of the program we didn’t have time to experience, and the women gave us feedback on every piece. That feedback is our blueprint. It came from real women, sitting in a real room, who know exactly what it feels like to be there.

This retreat has been a dream for a long time. Now, it’s closer to being a reality. And if we left with any single conclusion, it’s this: we have to do more of this. We need to create more spaces for women with vitiligo to gather. Unhurried time together to remember who we are, and walk back into our lives feeling more comfortable in our skin.

The takeaway

Founders Weekend was the final in-person step in building the Dappled Darlings Retreat, shaped from start to finish by women in our community. We tested the program, gathered honest feedback in real time, and learned that the most powerful thing we can offer is a room where women can tell their stories and hear “me too.”

The full 2027 program will be announced later this year, and applications open in January 2027. If you want to be the first to know, join the Dappled Darlings Retreat interest list.

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Thank you to WATSKIN for gifting hats to our Founders Weekend guests. This post isn’t sponsored, and all opinions are our own. Please review our full Disclaimer.

Erika Page

Erika Page is the founder and CEO of Living Dappled and a community-builder for women with vitiligo. Diagnosed at seven, she lost 100% of her skin’s pigment over 25 years. Living Dappled is the space she wished she’d had: a place to gather with women like her and walk through life with vitiligo together.