Marks & Spencer's use of 4-year-old Seb White (at bottom right), a little boy with Down syndrome, in its Christmas ad and catalog this year is being hailed as a bold, and long overdue, step forward for the treatment and perception of people with disabilities. The news follows similar stories in the U.S., where Ryan Langston has been doing tons of catalog modeling and Valentina Guerrero fronted a whole American campaign from Spanish swimwear designer Dolores Cortés. I wouldn't have noticed Seb's disability if it hadn't been pointed out, which is the point. Plenty of people with disabilities are indistinguishable from the rest of us. Well, Seb does pull off a bow tie better than most, so there's one difference, I guess.
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