For Ellie Goldstein, Down syndrome was never an obstacle to pursuing what she wanted. What did change was the beauty industry, which for the first time put her in front of the cameras for a brand like Gucci.
It all began with a project called “Unconventional Beauty”, an initiative by Gucci Beauty and the Photo Vogue Festival to spotlight faces that traditional advertising usually leaves out. Ellie posed for a mascara campaign and shared the behind-the-scenes with a simple statement: she felt lucky and honored to have been chosen.
Katie Driscoll, founder of the organization Changing the Face of Beauty, sums it up with a powerful idea: when a brand like Gucci values consumers with disabilities, it pushes the entire industry to move forward. And there is one fact that gives weight to that fight: people with disabilities face twice the unemployment rate of everyone else, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. For Driscoll, advertising is only the first step — the next is real employment.
