Model With Down Syndrome Challenges Beauty Stereotypes

Katie Meade is the first to admit that people with Down Syndrome, as well as other disabilities, are largely absent from the beauty and fashion industries - and she’s determined to change it. 

The 33-year-old made history last year when she became the first ever model with Down Syndrome to be the face of a beauty brand and her career - both as a model and as an ambassador for people with learning disabilities - continues to grow.

Growing up, Katie loved putting on different outfits and playing with lipstick, and had always dreamt of becoming a model but it wasn’t something she believed would ever happen to her. 

Now that it has, Katie is passionate about encouraging other people – whether they have a disability or not – to consider themselves worthy of a place in the beauty and fashion industry. 

Katie, from Des Moines Iowa, said: “Growing up my sisters and I had fun dressing up, putting makeup on and posing. I had a lot of fun back when I was growing up and I just never thought I could be a model.

“I haven’t seen anybody with Down Syndrome be a model and now it’s time to see more people with disabilities can have the chance to be beautiful and pretty. 

“People who have disabilities can have abilities and they are very capable of doing so much in life.“

As the face of American Beauty brand Beauty & Pinups ‘fearless’ hair mask range, Katie embodies boldness and determination. 

She said: “I was given the chance to shine and show that beauty belongs to everyone.”

Alongside her modelling and admin day job, Katie regularly speaks at events for charity Best Buddies, which seeks to encourage and empower people with learning difficulties to find jobs and build friendships. 

In fact it’s because of her work as an ambassador for Best Buddies that Katie became a model. She was scouted by Kenny Kahn, the CEO of Beauty & Pinups himself, who'd heard about the charity and Katie’s work as an ambassador.  

Since her work with Beauty & Pinups, Katie has appeared in several photo shoots including Refinery29’s hot list of models challenging the fashion and beauty industry’s status quo.

Make-up artist Alan Randall had worked with Katie a number of times and has seen first hand the positive impact the model has made. 

He said: “What I like about Katie as a model is that just how easy she is to work with and I think she is a pretty good example of inner beauty as well as outer beauty.

“I have worked with a lot of models and Katie was definitely the first model that I had worked with, with Down Syndrome and I’m kind of disappointed that I had never worked with any models that had Down Syndrome because I feel like it’s an amazing thing.”

What makes Katie’s achievements all the more remarkable is that as a baby she underwent open-heart surgery.

Katie’s mum Becky remembers the shaky start.

She said: “She had a lot of health implications. She had three open-heart surgeries, two thoracotomies; we tube-fed her for the first two and a half years of her life. So, it was touch and go. It was a tough start, but look where she is now.

“The doctor told us to take her home, to love her, to treat her like our other girl.

"And all her life we have tried to feed her the same opportunities that we did the other girls.”

Eventually gaining full health, Katie went on to compete in gymnastics at the Special Olympics.

Becky said: “Katie is an extremely positive person, always looking at the bright side of things. Never down, just always bringing sunshine to everybody who she meets. She is sincere. She is caring. She is amazing. I am proud to call her my daughter.” 

Her dad Tom added: “What I love about her is her attitude and her outlook, because you can be down about things then talking to Katie about how her day went and it’s always a good day and you can’t help feeling good about it.

"When she was younger the ‘r’ word would come up, we learned to deal with it and tried to explain to Katie that everyone is different and not let that define who her.”

Katie said: “I remember when I was followed by a lot of kids back in school and they put gum in my hair. They took my books out of my bag. 

“I remember when my mom talked to my school about it. That having Down syndrome, people can face challenges and I remember just looking past that and I overcame my obstacles.

“I just want to open the door you can be a model whether you have a disability or not.”