Teen on a Mission to Change the Way People Define Beauty
Jennifer O'Neill
It all started with a cartwheel. Madeline Stuart, 18, was having trouble with the move in her hip-hop dance class because of extra weight she’d put on. So about a year and a half ago, the teen, from Brisbane, Australia, cut out junk food and began swimming five times a week, all while continuing her other activities including cheerleading, basketball, and cricket with the Special Olympics.
That’s right — the athlete who has since shed an impressive 40 pounds — has a disability: Down syndrome. But instead of slowing her down, Stuart is motivated to do more than the average teenager. Since she lost weight, she gained so much confidence that she wants to get into modeling — specifically to show the world that beauty comes in all different shapes.
Maddy, as she’s nicknamed, writes on her 100,000-likes-and-counting Facebook page that “modelling will help change societies view of people with Down Syndrome (sic),” and adds, “exposure will help to create acceptance.”
Unconditional acceptance is something the aspiring star, who has so far been snapped for the clothing label Living Dead, has gotten since day one from her mother, Roseanne Stuart. The proud mom told the Daily Mail's Australian edition that she has always made a point of telling her daughter “every day how amazing, funny, smart, beautiful, wonderful she is.”
Posing professionally would just let others in on the secret. “I think it is time people realized that people with Down syndrome can be sexy and beautiful and should be celebrated,” she says, acknowledging that attitudes have thankfully already shifted considerably for the better.
https://www.yahoo.com/parenting/teen-on-a-mission-to-change-the-way-people-define-119287524202.html
Jennifer O'Neill
It all started with a cartwheel. Madeline Stuart, 18, was having trouble with the move in her hip-hop dance class because of extra weight she’d put on. So about a year and a half ago, the teen, from Brisbane, Australia, cut out junk food and began swimming five times a week, all while continuing her other activities including cheerleading, basketball, and cricket with the Special Olympics.
That’s right — the athlete who has since shed an impressive 40 pounds — has a disability: Down syndrome. But instead of slowing her down, Stuart is motivated to do more than the average teenager. Since she lost weight, she gained so much confidence that she wants to get into modeling — specifically to show the world that beauty comes in all different shapes.
Maddy, as she’s nicknamed, writes on her 100,000-likes-and-counting Facebook page that “modelling will help change societies view of people with Down Syndrome (sic),” and adds, “exposure will help to create acceptance.”
Unconditional acceptance is something the aspiring star, who has so far been snapped for the clothing label Living Dead, has gotten since day one from her mother, Roseanne Stuart. The proud mom told the Daily Mail's Australian edition that she has always made a point of telling her daughter “every day how amazing, funny, smart, beautiful, wonderful she is.”
Posing professionally would just let others in on the secret. “I think it is time people realized that people with Down syndrome can be sexy and beautiful and should be celebrated,” she says, acknowledging that attitudes have thankfully already shifted considerably for the better.
https://www.yahoo.com/parenting/teen-on-a-mission-to-change-the-way-people-define-119287524202.html
