Diesel break conventions with a wheelchair bound model

In Diesel’s new ‘We Are Connected’ campaign, their artistic director Nicola Formichetti cast a wheelchair-bound blogger and executive editor as one of their main models.

Jillian Mercado who resides from New York suffers from muscular dystrophy, stars in the spring 2014 campaign, representing a different example of youth culture alongside the other 22 participants which vary from tattooed models, and foreign internet stars (Japanese Ryu Goda and Hirari Ikeda).

Speaking to MailOnline, Jillian said she wants it to ‘give hope to people who are maybe saying, “My life is over” because they are disabled. You can totally do it, nothing should be stopping you.’

It’s displaying a positive change in attitude towards the ideology that a model should be a size 0 and look ‘perfect’. Jillian herself admits that ‘I always have it in the back of my mind “Don’t be surprised if someone hates on the photo.”’

The campaign has been received with high regard, and hopefully shows how the future of modelling can be changed, and should be. Diesel should be considered an example of creating a truly inspiring campaign, which reflects honesty and beauty in the handicapped.

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