{"id":67785,"date":"2023-10-09T22:54:59","date_gmt":"2023-10-09T22:54:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newcelebworld.com\/?p=67785"},"modified":"2023-10-09T22:54:59","modified_gmt":"2023-10-09T22:54:59","slug":"my-parents-were-warned-id-never-walk-or-talk-now-im-a-catwalk-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newcelebworld.com\/celebrities\/my-parents-were-warned-id-never-walk-or-talk-now-im-a-catwalk-model\/","title":{"rendered":"My parents were warned I\u2019d never walk or talk\u2026 now I\u2019m a catwalk model"},"content":{"rendered":"

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From the star photographers to the stylists, to say nothing of the models, fashion shoots are exacting environments full of egos and divas. But all that changes when Ellie Goldstein, 21, is booked on a job. Be it an ad campaign for Gucci, or a cover shoot for Vogue, her energy and warmth lights up the room.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe dances a lot on the set,\u201d says her mother and manager Yvonne. \u201cIf someone is in a mood, she cheers them up. Models can be miserable but Ellie is so positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Essex-born Ellie, the first supermodel with Down\u2019s syndrome, \u00ad has already graced the covers of numerous magazines, including Elle and Glamour, and featured in campaigns for brands such as Gucci Beauty, Adidas, TK Maxx and Victoria\u2019s Secret.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s recently bought her first home aged 21. And when Mattel launched its first Barbie with Down\u2019s syndrome earlier this year, it was Ellie the company chose to promote the doll. \u201cI adored doing the Barbie job,\u201d Ellie tells the Daily Express. \u201cIt was great to finally see a doll that looked like me.\u201d<\/p>\n

I remark on how infectiously ambitious she is. \u201cI am indeed! I can\u2019t believe it\u2019s all happened to me. I\u2019ve got a book out, I\u2019ve got a Barbie out, and I\u2019m on the cover of Vogue.\u201d<\/p>\n

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She adds excitedly: \u201cI love dancing and modelling and I will always do it. Maybe I\u2019ll go to New York one day. I\u2019ve been to York, but not to New York!\u201d Now Ellie has written her autobiography which has the fitting title Against All Odds. It is the first book in acid attack survivor Katie Piper\u2019s new \u201cUnseen\u201d imprint which aims to highlight remarkable and inspirational women who have survived trauma.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to inspire people, and \u00adto teach them about Down\u2019s syndrome and be a role model,\u201d Ellie tells me. \u201cNow I\u2019m confident and outgoing. I can do anything and choose what I want. I loved writing the book, it was so fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

And with the devoted support of her mother, who accompanies her to each event, be it a party or a fashion shoot, Ellie is embracing all that her extraordinary life has to offer. Last month, she was invited to the big VIP party hosted by Kylie Minogue to launch London Fashion Week.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince I was tiny, I\u2019ve loved to dress up. I used to put on my [older] sister Amy\u2019s make-up, \u00adpretending I was on a catwalk. I had sparkly black leggings and a silver sparkly top. My mum did my hair with gems and headbands.\u201d<\/p>\n

That she has made such an impact in the world of high fashion is all the more remarkable when you consider that Yvonne was told shortly after Ellie\u2019s birth that her daughter would never walk, talk or go to university.<\/p>\n

During her pregnancy, tests had revealed a low risk of Yvonne\u2019s baby having Down\u2019s syndrome, \u00ad\u00ad
so Ellie\u2019s diagnosis was a shock. However, when the new mother was asked if she wished to abandon her infant daughter, after the lead doctor\u2019s blunt prognosis, Yvonne was horrified.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy husband Mark and I just looked at each other. I don\u2019t think we even answered the nurse. When I think back to the comments, I still feel angry and emotional about it. It was handled horrendously, like the staff forgot I was a human being \u2013 and that Ellie was, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet Ellie has utterly defied the medics\u2019 grim predictions. \u201cJust look at what Ellie has achieved, she has proved them all completely wrong and they should be ashamed of how they handled that,\u201d Yvonne continues. \u201cYou can\u2019t say that to a new mum; you wouldn\u2019t say to the mum of a normal baby what they are going to do in their education.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that they have been educated in the past 20 years to tell parents in a different way, even if the wording is changed just slightly. We were referred to leaflets to tell us about the extra chromosome that causes Down\u2019s syndrome. No-one actually sat with us and explained that there are mild to moderate forms of the condition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around one in every 1,000 babies born in the UK will have Down\u2019s syndrome, a genetic condition caused by an extra chromosome in the cells. Around 47,000 people in the UK have the condition and some level of learning disability. Many will lead independent lives, others will need more care.<\/p>\n

Half of all children with the condition also have a heart defect, and Ellie had an operation on \u00ad her heart at six months and has \u00ad to exercise regularly to keep \u00ad it healthy.<\/p>\n

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Yvonne continues: \u201cThank goodness I had a strong relationship with my own mum. She was also \u00ad
a very outgoing and confident \u00adperson, and she always said Ellie was going to be someone one day. She knew, it\u2019s just a shame she isn\u2019t here to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellie proved herself to be capable of so much more than medical expectation had assumed from a very young age. By the time she went to her mainstream primary school she could already read.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe taught herself to read before she started in reception. We bought her magnetised letters and she made words. She used to read the newspaper each day and never used to sound things out.\u201d When Ellie went to secondary school at 11, she had the reading age of an average 18-year-old.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is unique with her condition,\u201d says Yvonne. \u201cShe has a wide vocabulary and her memory is remarkable. She is now studying drama at college and can learn four pages of a script within days. She will learn a dance and remember the routine years later.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when she\u2019s modelling, she just knows what to do. Every single person she has worked for gives the same feedback; she takes direction and is easy to work with.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t always so when Ellie was at school. While she made friends and enjoyed lessons, by year nine, when Ellie was 13, the work had become too demanding and she would get into trouble for acting up in class. She transferred to a school for children with learning disabilities where she blossomed but, as there was no sixth form, had to switch to a \u00addifferent school where she felt less supported.<\/p>\n

Yvonne had been determined to help find a secure future for Ellie, who is just 4ft 9in tall, so when a friend saw an inclusive talent agent, Zebedee, on daytime television, she contacted the founder, Zoe Proctor. After a trial photoshoot, Ellie joined its books in 2016. Eight months later she was featured in Superdrug\u2019s Christmas advert.<\/p>\n

Says Zoe: \u201cWe instantly knew Ellie had the perfect personality for modelling; she\u2019s a total fire-cracker. She came to one of our first casting events.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was 15 years old and bursting with energy. She lit up the room. People don\u2019t realise that 20 per cent of people have some kind of disability, but representation in the fashion industry is nowhere near that figure.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the Superdrug advert, Ellie was suddenly in demand. \u201cI felt like a real model,\u201d enthuses Ellie. \u201cLike modelling was my actual job.\u201d In 2019, she auditioned for Nike\u2019s Women\u2019s World Cup advert. They liked me enough to give me the job. This was acting too. They made me celebrate like someone had just scored.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The advert ran for the whole summer that year, and Ellie started seeing her face on the sides of buses, on websites and on posters. To her delight, her picture was even flashed on to the huge electronic billboards in London\u2019s Piccadilly Circus.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing myself up on that huge screen was like a dream,\u201d Ellie \u00adcontinues. \u201cI felt so excited. Before that I was just enjoying going to the studio, and suddenly it all felt so much more real.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellie was then cast in a dance group to perform at the Royal Opera House. Backstage before one of these performances, Ellie was photographed by Natalia Evelyn Bencicova.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the photo I was wearing my performance clothes: a cream-coloured baggy dress, a bit like a sack, with an orange stripe around the cover. I was smiling but it wasn\u2019t very glamorous,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n

The picture won the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize and was on show at the National Portrait Gallery for two months during which time it came to the attention of Alessia Glaviano, senior editor at Vogue Italia, who posted it to Instagram.<\/p>\n

It then caught the attention of Alessandro Michele, the creative director at Gucci and in the summer of 2020, when Gucci unveiled its beauty campaign for Mascara L\u2019Obscur, it was Ellie they chose to appear with a flutter of megawatt lashes.<\/p>\n

The resulting image has been described as \u201ca battle cry against the historic beauty ideals that have long excluded disability\u201d. Racking up more than 850,000 \u201clikes\u201d on Gucci\u2019s Instagram it was the Italian brand\u2019s most liked post ever. Three years on, and Ellie is continuing to change perceptions, including as an ambassador for the learning charity Mencap.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMy disability has taught me to be \u2018me\u2019 \u2013 and not to be scared of doing things louder in the world,\u201d she says. \u201cNever give up, be who you are and smile all the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

She beams at her mother, sitting beside her. And the relationship between mother and daughter is an inspiration, as is Yvonne\u2019s \u00adself-sacrifice in her determination to support her daughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith a background in advertising, I went on to become a support worker for young adults, but when Ellie started getting work I had to take a lot of time off,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t keep doing it and although I loved my job I decided to call it a day. I do miss working, but it\u2019s been amazing to watch Ellie\u2019s career take off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Yvonne doesn\u2019t know if her daughter will ever live alone, she has encouraged Ellie to buy her own home, while keeping the family house, to encourage her to learn cooking and housekeeping skills and be more independent.<\/p>\n

\u201cMum is very good; she has supported me to help my career,\u201d Ellie adds. \u201cShe appreciates me and I appreciate her back. She is the best mum in the whole, entire world.\u201d<\/p>\n