Fashion Week Milestone: Model With Down Syndrome

Actress Jamie Brewer will walk the runway
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 12, 2015 12:14 PM CST
Fashion Week Milestone: Model With Down Syndrome
Jamie Brewer arrives at the Television Academy's 66th Emmy Awards Producers Nominee Reception at the London West Hollywood on Aug. 22, 2014.   (Photo by Dan Steinberg/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images)

Visitors to New York Fashion Week will see a first today: a model with Down syndrome walking the runway, reports USA Today. Actress Jamie Brewer, best known for her work on American Horror Story, will do the honors, wearing an original by designer Carrie Hammer as part of Hammer's Role Models Not Runway Models show. “Young girls and even young women … [see me] and say, ‘Hey, if she can do it so can I,’” Brewer tells Today.

Hammer explains that the idea came from Katie Driscoll, a woman whose daughter Grace has Down syndrome. “She asked if I would have a role model for Grace,” Hammer says. Brewer was an easy pick, given that she's not only an actress but an activist for others with disabilities. The actress tells Bustle she understands why it's taken this long for the milestone: “A lot of people have a certain image of what perfect is until they actually see or hear something that’s extremely different in the media." (More Fashion Week stories.)

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