Michaela was born in Sierra Leone and lived in an orphanage where she was treated poorly due to having vitiligo. She found inspiration from a magazine photo of a ballerina. She was later adopted by an American couple and introduced to ballet. Despite initial self-consciousness about her vitiligo, she pursued her dream of becoming a ballerina. She graduated from a prestigious ballet school and now dances professionally, sharing her story of hope and perseverance.

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Living in poverty in
Sierra Leone with
a rare skin condition,
Michaela thought she
was doomed...
“
▼ Before being adopted, Michaela (far left) was rejected
by several other couples. “Twelve families said no to
her, so we decided to adopt her,” Elaine DePrince says.
“She was the tiniest 4-year-old I’d ever seen in my life.”
{If you have a real-life story like Michaela’s, email j14@j14.com}
“Every day
I can’t believe
I’m here and
that I get to do
what I love,”
Michaela tells
J-14.
Adoption
saved me!”

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Michaela’s brave journey to achieve her dreams!
Beacon of hope “We piled
into this car to go to the safe
house in Guinea,” Mich says.
New life In the photo on the left, Michaela models the
new clothes she got after leaving Sierra Leone. “The
photo on the right is of Mia and me a few weeks after
arriving in the U.S.,” Mich says. “We look so healthy!”
Leap of faith Michaela
collaborated with her
mom on Taking Flight, in
bookstores October 14.
Her rock “When I met my
mom, she was just so cute,”
Michaela tells J-14. Their bond
has only grown stronger!
Making her television debut All of
Michaela’s hard work paid off when she
performed on Dancing With the Stars in 2012.
Going after her dream “The first time I got
to put on pointe shoes was when we were in TJ
Maxx,” Michaela shares. “They were huge and
I was like, ‘This is perfect!’”
First Thanksgiving “We’re admiring the
turkey with our papa,” Michaela tells J-14.
“Mama said it weighed more than me!”
Naturals “We’re performing our
version of the party
scene from the Nut-
cracker,” Michaela says.
J
ust 15 years ago, Mabinty
Bangura was living in an orphan-
age in civil-war-plagued Sierra
Leone, Africa. Her father was shot
and killed by rebels when she was
only 3, her mother died of starvation
soon after, and little Mabinty was
suffering from vitiligo, a disorder
which caused her skin to appear
blotchy and discolored. “My life
was pretty much horrible,” Mabinty,
whose name was later changed to
Michaela, opens up to J-14. “I was
treated badly by other children and
adults because I had vitiligo. They
thought of me as the devil’s child and
told me that I wasn’t going to get
adopted. It ruined my self-esteem for
years.” The cruelty was never-ending.
“We were ranked as numbers,”
Michaela says about life in the
orphanage. “One was the favorite,
and 27 was the least favorite. I was
27, which meant I got the least
amount of food and clothes.”
Getting inspired
Tired of being put down by the people
she was living with, Michaela often
spent time outside, which is where
she discovered a photograph that
she says saved her life. “I found a
magazine outside of the orphanage
gate,” she explains. “It had a picture
of a ballerina standing on her tippy-
toes on it. She was like a fairy that I’d
never seen before and the image was
absolutely magical for me! I thought if
I ever got adopted, I wanted to be like
her. She represented hope, dreams,
everything that I could possibly
dream of! I [ended up] ripping the
page out and I stuck it in my under-
wear, because I didn’t have any other
place to put it.”
Dream come true
Shortly after Michaela stumbled upon
the magazine, her luck started to
change. The United Nations stepped
in to rescue her and other orphans
and take them to a safe house in
Guinea. Then, Michaela found out
that a couple from the United States
wanted to adopt her and her friend,
Mia. “I assumed that I wouldn’t be
adopted,” Michaela recalls. “But when
I was, I was like, ‘Yeah!’ It surprised
me that someone could be sweet to
the ‘devil’s child.’”
The world of ballet
Living with her new parents, the
DePrinces, Michaela started to get
used to life in America. “[When I came
to the U.S.] I assumed everyone would
have pointe shoes,” she laughs about
her ballet dreams. “I even searched my
mom’s bag thinking she was going to
have my shoes all ready for me, but
she didn’t.” However, Michaela didn’t
have to wait long to put on a of pair
ballet slippers. “I showed my mom the
picture I found,” Michaela says, and
after that, she was enrolled in her first
ballet class. “I was really excited, but
I was worried that people would judge
me for my vitiligo. I made my mother
buy me a long-sleeve turtleneck
leotard so that the other children in
my class wouldn’t see all of my white
spots. But by the time I was 7 years
old, I realized that if I was really serious
about becoming a professional
ballerina, I’d have to get over my
reluctance to expose my spots.”
From that point forward, Michaela
never looked back. She practiced her
craft nearly every day, and in 2012,
graduated from the American Ballet
Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
school in New York, and joined the
Dance Theatre of Harlem. In 2013, she
joined the junior company of the Dutch
National Ballet, and now, she’s even
releasing a book about her life (Taking
Flight hits shelves October 14).
Through it all, Michaela remains
the same grounded girl who keeps
dreaming big, and she’s intent on
spreading her message of hope.
“I have taught ballet in South Africa
many times,” she gushes. “I want to
open a school in Sierra Leone, and I
want it to be a free school so kids don’t
have to pay for it.” So inspiring!