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Kayla Kosmalski’s inclusion in the latest GAP campaign is about so much more than selling clothes – it’s about changing the face of fashion modelling.
Kayla, 9, took part of the launch of Ellen Degeneres’s new clothing line for kids in collaboration with Gap, GapKids x ED, which also includes a partnership with a parents’ group called Changing the Face of Beauty
Her Mum, Amy Kosmalski, told The Mighty website: “The campaign is just incredible. It’s showing the world that our kids are more alike than different and they deserve the same opportunities as the other kids do. Yes, Kayla has Down syndrome, but she’s smart and funny and sassy like all other kids.”
Back home in Australia, we have some local models to celebrate.
Catia Malaquias, proudly put her gorgeous son, Julius, who has Down syndrome, up for a modelling gig and he was immediately signed by hot kids fashion brand, eeni meeni miini moh.
“When our son Julius pops up in a mainstream advertising campaign, I believe that our family is contributing in some small way to improving attitudes to people with Down syndrome,” Catia said, at the time.
Fast forward a few years, and there’s Brisbane’s Maddie Stewart, who also has Down syndrome, landing gigs left right and centre.
When they 18-year-old from Brisbane told her mum she wanted to be a model, it came as no surprise.
Maddy had always been vivacious, she was an energetic young woman who never took ‘no’ for an answer, and always pushed herself to try new things – and modelling was no exception.
After swimming for years, training with the cricket team for the Special Olympics, and dancing hip-hop in LA, Maddy set her sights on her new challenge, modelling. A change, her mother said, was as natural as can be.
“Maddy is so confident, she has no hang ups, she is more than happy to parade around the house showing me how gorgeous she is with her hand up behind her head swaying her hips as if to say ‘look at me’,” said mum, Roseanne, “She loves the attention when she is up on the stage, doing a play or competing in gymnastics or cheer, and I have always taken millions of photos of her so she loves the camera.”
But it wasn’t always an easy path for Maddy.
“Her doctors told me she would never achieve anything. When she was first at school, on the sports day some of the parents didn’t want her to compete as they wanted their child’s team to win,” said Roseanne.
But Maddy isn’t about to let anything stop her – let alone Down syndrome. She wants to work towards changing the stigmas around her condition, and changing the minds of everyone who doubted her.
“I think it is time people realised that people with Down syndrome can be sexy and beautiful and should be celebrated,” said Roseanne.
“Maybe Maddy can stop people feeling that way. If the average person could see the beauty Maddy has inside, how loving and caring she is and if that is what people measured beauty on, then most of the models in the world would have Down syndrome.”
