It is. Maybe I'm a big meanie but if you ask me, people around her are exploiting this girl for their own ends and should be ashamed of themselves. A lot of "nice" people, including here, are gonna indulge this out of compassion. As this comes from Life News we see they want to use it as an argument against abortion (that will convince no one).
But this girl is opening herself up to ridicule. Avoiding ridicule is actually sometimes a fantastic reason not to do something. It's the reason I put pants on before I go get the mail.
I don't think it compares at all to having DS kids play Little League, which (should) allow all kids regardless of talent a chance to play and have fun because that's what it's meant for. This young lady is an adult now, doing a very adult thing in the adult world. Feminazis may disagree, but every girl is not a model. And that's perfectly ok.
Here's a quote about her mom "Maddy's mother Rosanne told Daily Mail Australia that she has always made a point of telling 'her every day how amazing, funny, smart, beautiful, wonderful she is'."
Now, people with DS are generally very sweet so it won't go to their head as much but parents do too much of that, telling their kids how awesome they are so they grow up really entitled and conceited and don't thrive in the real world.
I'll reiterate though that it's great this motivated her to get healthy and lose weight.
” I’ll reiterate though that it’s great this motivated her to get healthy and lose weight. “
On this I agree, and I’m glad for her success as well.
But she is no beauty, and most little league kids will never hit 300 in the major leagues.
DS folk vary greatly in the degree of disability, and how they look as well. This one looks fairly normal, compared to many. I hope she isn’t badly exploited, but she probably will be, knowing the media.
Modeling is a very catty and superficial business, based almost solely on physical looks. My concern for the young lady is that someone is bound to criticize (or worse) because she has DS because of her entrance into this superficial industry (and I’d hate to see that hurt her personally and psychologically). If she’s in it to fill a niche segment aimed exclusively at those with DS, I don’t particularly see a problem. Mainstream, however, is going to be far more daunting.