Tag: actress

Marian Avila, a 21-year-old Spanish model with Down syndrome, fulfilled her dream to walk at New York Fashion Week thanks to an Atlanta designer she met through the magic of social media.

And she did it with flair Saturday in the ballroom of a Midtown hotel in evening looks of red and gold, her parents and siblings in the audience and other models who have challenges by her side.

“I felt really happy and I really loved the runway,” Avila said through a translator after the Saturday show. “I wanted to show the world that there are no barriers.”

No barriers for women of all kinds is Talisha White’s mission, as a designer focused on prom, pageant and special occasion outfits and as an active pageant contestant as well.

A model White knew had stumbled on a story about Avila’s fashion week dream online. She told White of Avila’s quest and they reached out to Avila on Facebook.

“She’s been a busy supermodel, meeting with all types of people,” White said of the attention Avila and her dream have received in the United States, her home country and across Europe. “I’m very glad for her. She’s been meeting with Vogue. She’s been meeting with Harper’s Bazaar. She’s been meeting in different showrooms, different modeling agencies.”

Avila is from the Benidorm area, in the province of Alicante in eastern Spain on the Mediterranean coast. She was accompanied by her parents and siblings. At home, she said, “I practice every day,” referring to her love of modeling.

“I’m studying modeling and to become an actress,” Avila said.