"I'm not a genetic freak. I'm a genetic phenomenon,'' says Jennifer Oklak.

Jennifer, 19, and her sister Heather, 13, are among about 18,000 Americans affected by albinism, a genetic condition in which a person has little to no pigment, or coloration.

Jennifer graduated from the Indiana School for the Blind last spring and is studying graphic design at Ivy Tech State College. Heather is a seventh-grader at the School for the Blind and left Saturday for a week at Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala.

Albinism occurs naturally in plants and animals as well as people. Still, many people react with fear and cruelty when they see someone or something with albinism.

"When I was 5 years old, I was walking in front of my mommy's cart at the grocery store, and this woman was walking by us in the other direction, and she comes back and she grabs me by the arm, and she jerks me around and she goes, 'Let me look at your eyes! Oh my God!' '' Jennifer said.

There are several types of albinism affecting different features of the body. The two basic types are oculocutaneous and ocular.

Jennifer and Heather have oculocutaneous albinism, or OCA: They have no pigment in their hair, skin or eyes. In ocular albinism, the eyes lack melanin, but the skin and hair show near-normal coloration.

The biggest problem for people with albinism is impaired vision, because the eye needs melanin to develop properly. Vision problems result from the abnormal development of the retina and abnormal patterns of nerve connections between the eyes and brain.

"Tracking is a real problem,'' Jennifer explained. "My eyes don't work together. I have no depth perception.''

Jennifer also has nystagmus, which is involuntary twitching of the eyes. "They twitch more when I'm stressed out or tired. I can't start or stop it voluntarily; it just kind of happens.''

The visual impairment has the most impact on these teen-agers' lives, in part because it complicates their ability to drive. Heather said, "We can't drive until we're older because it's really very expensive to get the lessons, and you have to get special glasses -- bioptics.''

Bioptics have small telescopes mounted on, in or behind the regular lenses so the person can look through the regular lens or the telescope. They come in different strengths and cost from $750 to $2,500. Anyone can buy bioptics, but they are required for visually impaired drivers, who also need to have a full field of vision and color recognition.

Reading off paper is also difficult. The girls compensate in many ways: When they play music, they memorize the music rather than read notes; they have a closed-circuit TV in which a camera attached to the TV screen makes the print bigger; and when Jennifer uses her ATM card, she memorizes the pattern of the numbers on the keypad rather than look for the numbers themselves.

Albinism has several other side effects, none of which really bothers the girls too much.

"Most people with albinism are photophobic -- the sun hurts their eyes,'' Heather explained. In photophobia, light can enter the eye through the iris, which has little or no pigment; in a normal eye, light can enter only through the pupil.

When people with albinism go out into the sunlight, they usually wear sunglasses and hats.

"Photophobia is why I wear the hat. I always have sunglasses with me. I can stand to go without them, but I'm a much happier camper when I have them on,'' said Jennifer.

People with albinism don't tan. "You have to wear a lot of sunscreen because you get sunburned very easily,'' said Heather, who pointed out another feature of albinism: "My hair won't take dyes, not very well anyway, 'cause there's no pigment for the dye to cling to.''

Jennifer and Heather deal with these inconveniences with good humor.

"Sometimes I'd like to be able to go out and get a tan, but I can get over that,'' said Jennifer. However, she added, "I wouldn't be the person I am today without having albinism.''

The gene responsible for albinism contains the blueprint for producing the pigment melanin. An albinism gene has an altered blueprint that doesn't let the body make the usual amounts of melanin.

Jennifer and Heather received their albinism through autosomal recessive inheritance. Autosomal means the gene responsible for albinism is on autosomes, nonsex chromosomes, so males and females have an equal chance of inheriting the gene. For most types of albinism, both parents must carry an albinism gene, which is recessive.

"Recessive'' refers to the way the gene is expressed. Each cell in the body has two copies of each gene -- one version from the mother and one from the father.

If a person carries one copy with an altered blueprint, and the other copy has an unaltered blueprint, the effects of the altered blueprint don't show. This person, like the girls' mother, is an unaffected carrier. But if a person has two copies of an altered gene, the product of that gene -- in this case, pigment -- can't be made correctly, so that person has albinism.

The Oklak sisters' father and uncle also have albinism.

"There (are) four people in my family with it. I thought it was typical, and then I got to school and I realized it wasn't,'' Jennifer said.

The girls are familiar with some stereotypes applied to people with albinism. They have gotten used to them, and in some cases don't even pay attention to them.

Movies such as Powder, The Time Machine , The Princess Bride and The Village of the Damned stereotype people with albinism as having special powers, such as laser vision or the ability to read minds.

"Gosh, in some ways I wish I did. It'd make some jobs a lot easier,'' said Jennifer. "We're just typical people with less pigment.''

The girls explained that many people with albinism don't like being called albinos.

" 'People with albinism' identifies the person as a person instead of by their condition,'' Jennifer said.

The girls don't like being stereotyped and wish people were more compassionate.

"I wish they'd just understand more, because a lot of people are insensitive and maybe cruel because they don't understand what it's like,'' Jennifer said.

There are different ways to refer to albinism. Some say it is a disease, or a disorder, or maybe a disability. To the girls, it's a condition.

"I would describe it as a condition, a genetic condition, where you have no pigment,'' Jennifer said.

"The vision may be sort of a disability, but otherwise not really,'' Heather added. "It's no form of disease at all. It's just the way we were born.''

A cure for albinism would solve all their problems. But the girls say they don't want one.

"It doesn't need to be cured. It's not that bad,'' Heather said.

To Jennifer, it's part of her identity. "I think of albinism as a part of me -- Jennifer. It's part of who I am. And without it, I wouldn't be the same person.''

The Oklaks are members of NOAH, the National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation, which is a general term for decreased pigmentation. The nonprofit NOAH offers information and support to people with albinism.

"The reason they use the word NOAH -- I believe, anyway -- is because many people believe that Noah from the Bible had albinism. In the Dead Sea scrolls, it talks about Noah being born with 'flaming red eyes and white hair,' '' Jennifer explained.

For more information on NOAH, call (800) 473-2310 or view its Web page at www.albinism.org.

REPORTERS: Jenny Hoffman, 12; Tom Risk, 12; Courtney Sampson, 13; Tyler Smith, 13; and Alicia Strong, 13.

Next week in Focus: Y-Press hits Hong Kong

In late June, six Y-Press news bureau members traveled to Hong Kong. Their interviews focused on the transition from British to Chinese Communist control.

During this 10-day trip, the team interviewed 105 young people and six adults, who shared their opinions on nationality, politics, lifestyle, freedoms and their future under the Chinese government. Look for this report in next Sunday's Focus section.