I recently came across this young lady Selina Towers and was initially drawn to her story as she lives with the same genetic condition that I have.  When I read a little more I couldn’t help but be struck by her zest for life and her desire to raise awareness of the beauty of all body types…..

Only this morning BBC Breakfast covered the story of former Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman who has this week posted a selfie wearing a bikini.  No great shocks there, except that the picture is unfiltered and Ms Shulman aged 59 looks like any middle aged lady on her hols – or rather she does not resemble an airbrushed model.  Do these “perfect” images often published on social media influence the body image of those viewing them?  Last week actress Kate Beckinsale spoke about giving positive advice to her daughter on body image and the importance of not trying to live up to an impossible stereotype. In Australia a new campaign targeting parents of pre school age girls, aims to celebrate body shape and size diversity, celebrate skills and personality traits, as well as teaching parents healthy language around food and bodies.

In this article Selina looks at disability within the modelling and fashion world, and how disabled models could challenge stereotypes, if given a chance.

Are Disabled Only Runways A Good Way To Showcase Disabled Models?

A year ago, I wouldn’t really have thought about it, I would have just thought it was an absolutely brilliant thing bringing to light the beautiful disabled models that we rarely see on the runway but then, I didn’t truly understand how it felt from a disabled person’s point of view.

I was born with a condition called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome which didn’t start to really affect me until I was around 10 years old, but even then it was only the odd dislocation here and there. Although it did affect my every day life and limited what I could do, I didn’t really consider myself as having a disability, just some fairly cool party tricks where I could bend bits of me that really shouldn’t bend that far! However last year, I had an unfortunate bout of flare ups with unfortunately led to me having to become reliant on a wheelchair.

For the full article go to Models of Diversity