You Are Not the Problem. The Stigma Around Appearance Is.
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TAP is building Africa’s home for appearance dignity, justice, and psychosocial well-being, ensuring no one is excluded, silenced, or diminished because of how they look.
This is not about fixing how people look.
It is about dignity, belonging, and full participation in life.
What The Appearance Positive (TAP) Is
What The Appearance Positive (TAP) Is
TAP is an African-rooted, pioneering psychosocial and cultural movement operating as a hybrid social enterprise that transforms how society understands appearance, identity, and psychosocial well-being.
We support individuals navigating visible differences, skin conditions, and appearance-related distress, not by seeking to "fix" appearances, but by dismantling the systems, stigmas, and narratives that limit lives, opportunities, and belonging.
Our work sits at the intersection of psychosocial care, research, digital tools, learning, community engagement, and cultural storytelling, with a focus on dignity, justice, and the social, emotional, and mental well-being of individuals and communities.
WHY TAP MATTERS
WHY TAP MATTERS
The Problem We Address
The Problem We Address
Across many African societies, appearance plays an outsized role in determining how people are treated, included, hired, respected, or excluded. From childhood bullying and social isolation to workplace discrimination and long-term psychosocial distress.
Those who look different are often subjected to stigma, silence, discrimination, and emotional harm, experiences that are frequently often dismissed, normalised, ignored or left unspoken.
TAP exists to ensure that no one’s dignity, opportunity, or sense of belonging is limited by how they look.
What We Do
TAP works at the intersection of psychosocial well-being, culture, and social justice through:
📣 Advocacy
Challenging harmful norms, stereotypes, and policies around appearance and visible difference.
🎭 Culture, & Impact Storytelling
Using African narratives, art, festivals, and lived experiences to shift how difference is seen, represented, and understood.
👥 Community Programs Creating safe, affirming spaces for people affected by appearance-based stigma to connect, heal, and grow.
📱 Digital Tools Creating secure, accessible digital platforms that offer psychosocial safety, support social, emotional, and mental well-being, amplify lived voices, and sustain care, learning, and connection.
How TAP Creates Change
How TAP Creates Change
TAP’s work is guided by four interconnected focus areas that shape how we design programs, tell stories, and advocate for change.
Appearance Dignity
Affirming the inherent worth of people whose appearances are often judged, policed, or devalued.
Psychosocial Well-being
Supporting social, emotional, and mental well-being so people can live visibly, safely, and fully.
Cultural Storytelling
Using African narratives and lived experiences to expand how looks, difference, and humanity are understood.
Advocacy & Systems Change
Challenging discriminatory norms, practices, and policies so appearance never limits participation or opportunity.
Why This Work Is Different
TAP does not approach appearance as a cosmetic issue or a problem to be fixed. We approach it as a psychosocial, cultural, and justice issue, rooted in lived experience, community knowledge, and African realities.
A digital well-being companion supporting confidence, emotional resilience, and appearance-related self-acceptance.
APi (Appearance Positive Institute)
The learning, research, and professional development arm of TAP, advancing appearance positivity through training, education, and evidence-based practice.
ASWALK Festival (Appearance and Skin Walk Festival)
A cultural festival celebrating visibility, difference, and self-expression through art, fashion, storytelling, and public engagement.
TAP Community & Culture ecosystem.
ACE Woman (Appearance Confident and Exceptional Woman)
A TAP initiative supporting women living with visible differences, scars, and appearance-related trauma through psychosocial care, visibility, and empowerment.
TAP Community & Culture ecosystem.
Who TAP Is For
Who TAP Is For
TAP is for people whose lives have been shaped by how they look.
It is for people living with visible differences and appearance-related distress, and for those who support, care for, work with, and stand alongside them. TAP also serves educators, practitioners, creatives, advocates, and institutions committed to appearance dignity, inclusion, and justice.
If you believe that appearance should never limit a person’s worth, opportunity, or belonging, TAP is for you.
Founder/Why TAP Exist
Founder/Why TAP Exist
**Founded in Lived Experience. Built for Systemic Change.**
**Founded in Lived Experience. Built for Systemic Change.**
The Appearance Positive (TAP) was founded by Ogo Maduewesi out of lived necessity.
She created TAP to build the digital, educational, communal, and cultural infrastructure she needed herself but never had.
Ogo is a psychosocial advocate and systems thinker who has spent over 17 years turning personal truth into collective possibility. An Ashoka Fellow, her work focuses on dismantling appearance-based stigma and building long-term, appearance-positive systems across Sub-Saharan Africa.
She is the founder of the Vitiligo Support and Awareness Foundation (VITSAF); Africa’s first patient-led vitiligo organisation, and a pioneer of the World Vitiligo Day movement. She is also a founding director of the International Alliance of Dermatology Patient Organisations (IADPO/GlobalSkin), the global network advancing dermatology patient advocacy.
Living with visible differences herself, including vitiligo, scars, and long-standing appearance-related anxiety, Ogo’s work is rooted not in theory, but in lived experience, dignity, and the belief that no one should have to disappear to belong.
TAP exists because she knows what it means to navigate the world without the language, support, or systems to name your experience, and because she believes those systems can, and must, be built.
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