I think modelling is...
It's a good way for disability to break into the mainstream.
So, having a modelling competition is the first thing; people go,
'Oh!' it's SO visible'.
I have a condition called
Hereditary Neuropathy with liability to Pressure Palsies.
I can become paralysed from pressure or from knocks.
I can't feel about 45% of my skin,
so I can't feel my arms, can't feel half of my face.
The paralyses aren't permanent,
they can kind of come and go
but they can come without much warning,
at any time and they can last any amount of time.
I was in a wheelchair for quite a while
because I went to a party with my friends
and after about half an hour of dancing,
I started to feel a kind of tingling in my foot
and I was like, 'Oh no, I know that tingling',
So I sat down and to be honest, I cried because I didn't want to go.
Then my friend took me to hospital.
The next day, my foot was paralysed.
I became interested in a career in modelling
when I saw the advert that said,
'Do you want to be a disabled model?'
I think that if I went to a modelling agency before the programme,
and didn't discuss my disability,
didn't say that there was anything wrong with me,
didn't say that I had M.E. needed to lie down a lot,
then I do think that they'd be quite open to that,
'Yeah sure, great, let's take photographs of you!'
But because I do have disabilities,
as soon as people know that, they make snap judgements
and they'll say no, just because they know I've got a disability.
I hope this show does do something to change that,
that a girl can go to a modelling agency and say,
'Well, I've got this thing, but I'm also incredibly beautiful,
I'm hard working and I could forge a really good career.'
I think the show has been criticised a lot for using girls
that were the conventional idea of beauty.
We were girls who, the only thing that would hold us back,
from a modelling career would be our disabilities,
and so I think in that way, the show really did push boundaries
because it's saying,
'The only reason that no-one's come to these girls
and said why don't you be a model?'
is because of their disability.
If a fashion designer said to me, 'I want you to take your splints off
because I feel it's going to detract from the outfit',
then the first thing I would say would obviously be,
'Okay, that's fine, but you do realise I'm going to be limited
in the things I'm going to be able to do,
so as long as you're prepared to have someone with me
who can open a bottle of water if I want a drink,
then that's fine'.
It's not covering up my disability to take my splints off,
my disability is in my nerves,
every part of me is disabled,
it doesn't matter what I have on,
because these are to help me move,
they're not my actual disability.
People might have the image
that beauty is about being complete, being whole, being perfect,
but what they need to realise is
an imperfection does not make something ugly.
Just because you're missing an arm doesn't mean you're suddenly hideous.
Your imperfections don't stop you being beautiful,
in fact they can add to your beauty.