This 18-Year-Old With Down Syndrome Just Won Model of the Year, and This Is Why

"[Maddy] had started to lose weight in March because she couldn't keep up with her dancing in her class and her other sports. She said to me she was unhappy, so we just got rid of all the junk food in the house, and she just started being healthy. When she said she wanted to be a model, I said, 'Well, you're going to have to keep getting healthy if you want to be a model.'"

"Whatever you want to do, do it. Don't take no for an answer, and follow your dreams . . . This is not about modeling. This is about people seeing Madeline so often that they get used to seeing someone with Down syndrome that they can walk up to and just have a conversation."

"Backstage was chaotic because [Maddy had] never been in an experience like that before. All the people in the makeup room being taught how to do it by the head makeup artist — I mean there were 100 people in the room, and that shocked me because there was a high stress level. At one point, just before the show, there were about 30 photographers that kept photographing Madeline, and she just started to cry because she was so overwhelmed."

"A French photographer contacted us and said he wanted to do a photo shoot. [We] wanted to do something in San Francisco that says 'San Francisco,' so he took us to the Golden Gate Bridge. I was ecstatic — I don't get excited very often, I sort of stay mellow because Madeline is very in tune with my emotions — but I was certainly excited [about the photos], and she was excited.

"Maddy is also in talks with another designer that wants her to walk at the UN next year in New York. So, there are a lot of things that are coming up next year."

"The reason Madeline was the most talked-about model on the runway — I mean yeah, she has Down syndrome — but she was the only person that made everyone stand up and clap; they all wanted to high-five her . . . It wasn't about how she looked, or the dress or anything else, it was about her spirit. She walked out on the catwalk and she put her arms up in the air and celebrated, and everyone celebrated with her."