Choose a moment you are super proud of & tell us why
A moment I ' m proud of would be when I left the hospital and then the rehab facility I ' d been living in for about 6 months post injury. I was proud of myself because I knew I ' d worked my butt off to get physically strong and independent again. But also because I had that moment where I looked back at how far I had come in such a short amount of time. I ' d become so resilient so quicklyand it even surprised myself.
Can you tell us about your own campaigns & the message you want to give?
Absolutely- I would love to. Basically I think it ' s incredibly important for brands and companies to be representing people living with disabilities for a few reasons. Firstly, they are failing to market to almost a fifth of the global population. Secondly, I believe that everyone deserves to feel represented, celebrated and loved. And thirdly, I have this theory about the connection between media representation and society ' s views of people living with disabilities. I ' ll try to keep this simple for the purpose of it being printed. But basically, I believe that society sees disabilities as undesirable. This means that the media are less likely to promote and represent disabled models. This lack of representation then further feeds into society ' s perceptions of disabled people, creating a vicious cycle. So basically, I think the fashion industry and media / advertising companies have a great opportunity to help change the perceptions of disabilities.
What are your plans for the rest of 2017?
The rest of 2017 I am going to continue to campaign for people living with disabilities. I am going to try to continue to get more exposure and more modeling work. I’ d love to branch into the fashion industry soon. But, again, I’ m taking it all one step at a time.
Would you like to come back to CPM in 6 months to catch up with us for another feature? Yeah, I’ d love to check back in with you in 6 months. It would be great to see if I’ ve made much progress and review that last 6 months.