When Madeline Stuart, an 18 yr old girl with Down syndrome posted about her amazing weight loss journey picture (featured below) it went viral last week on her Facebook page.

I picked up Maddy’s story last week and wrote about it on this blog. I am also the parent of a child with Down syndrome amongst other things; I’m also a mother of two, a writer, a public servant, and I like wearing awesome nylon dresses with crazy prints on them.

Of my crazy print dress collection, Living Dead Clothing are my favourite as they’re fully inclusive of ALL girls who like fashion. This is evident in their community policies, sizing, and beautiful supportive Facebook group.

Living Dead Clothing say on their website,

Every girl deserves a love letter. Every girl deserves a partner who looks at her every day like it’s the first time they saw her. Every girl deserves to be held like they never want to let her go. Every girl deserves to feel special. And every girl deserves being able to wear quality clothing that makes her feel pretty. And awesome. We at Living Dead Clothing believe you deserve so much. And we work to help dreams come true.

Living Dead Clothing certainly achieved their mission statement to make dreams come true. They’ve done that for parents all over the world, who aspire to achieving inclusion and mainstream acceptance for their children. Because they just hired this beautiful girl, Madeline Stuart, to feature in their clothing for their latest photo shoot.

That makes them the 14th company in Australia to feature someone with a diagnosis in their advertising this year. Maddie is the only adult. A group of people have been keeping count (including me). We track it via the hashtag #15in2015AUS and promote it via a campaign called Changing the Face of Beauty. And the best part is, Living Dead Clothing didn’t even know about the campaign. They just hired her because she is well liked, popular, has a nice Facebook following, and because she’s gorgeous.

As both someone who wears the company’s clothing, and the parent of a child with Down syndrome, this makes my heart sing to see a teenager so healthy, happy and loved being given the opportunity to do something she wants to do in clothes she already wears and loves.

“I think it is time people realized that people with Down syndrome can be sexy and beautiful and should be celebrated. Maddy’s boyfriend sure thinks she is sexy and that is pretty fantastic in my book. 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, than most of the models in the world would have Down syndrome. It truly is a beautiful thing”- Rosanne Stuart, Maddy’s mum.

Next challenge: Magazine cover. Let’s get Maddy featured! Like her page by clicking this sentence, and share it on the wall of every magazine you know!

You can follow Madeline on:

Facebook

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