{"id":193261,"date":"2018-12-28T13:25:55","date_gmt":"2018-12-28T19:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=193261"},"modified":"2018-12-27T12:57:26","modified_gmt":"2018-12-27T18:57:26","slug":"down-syndrome-modeling-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/down-syndrome-modeling-contract\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Beautiful in our own way’: Gymnast with Down syndrome gets modeling deal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Chelsea Werner is already a champion gymnast<\/a>.\u00a0She won the Special Olympics United States National Championship four times and the World Championship twice — and now, she’s proving that everyone is uniquely beautiful.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been doing gymnastics [for] as long as I can remember,” Werner, who has Down syndrome, told A Plus. “I fell like it’s always been a part of my life. I think gymnastics has trained me to be disciplined and to work hard. In gymnastics, each new skill takes a very long time – sometimes years! I think that it has given me confidence.”<\/p>\n

Werner faced rejection from fashion agencies who told her that there simply isn’t a market for models with Down syndrome. That only served as fuel for Werner’s fire of determination.<\/p>\n

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View this post on Instagram<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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This photo shoot with the amazing @liza_kanaeva_ was so fun! As you can see her puppy Gracie Lou and really wanted to be included ? ? #doglover #puppylove @wespeakny<\/a><\/p>\n

A post shared by Chelsea Werner<\/a> (@showtimewerner) on