A young woman who was born with Down syndrome is determined to transform public perceptions about the genetic disorder by pursuing her dream of becoming a model. Grace Strobel, 22, from Wildwood, Missouri, gives regular public speeches about the condition in the hopes of spread awareness and overcoming societal stereotypes about Down syndrome which causes developmental and intellectual delays. The model hopes to change society's view of people with disabilities, and create a change that will result in more opportunities for those with impairments.
When Grace was born, she was diagnosed with Down syndrome, a genetic disorder in which a person has an extra chromosome. The disorder results in both developmental and intellectual delays. A counsellor told Grace's mother and father, Linda and Jeff Strobel, that her daughter would face a lifetime of challenges as a result, according to STL Today. 'There is no shame in this at all, there are still institutions that will take her,' Jeff says the counsellor told them. 'Just take your time to think about it.'Similarly, the couple were told that their daughter would never read or write. However, Linda and Jeff were determined for their daughter to succeed in life and prove the counsellor wrong. As soon as they brought Grace home from the hospital for the first time, Linda began working with the newborn to help build muscle and tone in her neck, as well as reading everything she could about the disability. Linda became invested in focusing her time on Grace and began homeschooling her. Jeff, a Navy veteran, and Linda moved to Wildwood when they had their second child, Laine. By the time Grace was three-years-old, Linda would spend four to five hours every day working on school work. By age five, Grace had started reading and had memorized different words. When she was eight-years-old Linda decided to send Grace to elementary school, in order for her to improve her social skills by spending time with other students. Linda said: 'I was on a mission. I didn’t care what other people said or did. I surrounded myself with like-minded people.'However, Grace often had to be moved to different schools because Linda felt the level of education she was receiving wasn't substantial. She recalls a particular school in which a teacher had the child colouring worksheets all day long, and Linda decided to move Grace to a different school as a result.
The mother-of-two explained: 'You’re going to end up getting a PhD in colouring by the end of this.'She moved Grace to a new school and also continued to home school her from the comfort of their family house. Despite Linda's kind, patient attitude toward Grace's disability, not everyone treated Grace with the kind of love she received from her mother, father and younger sister. Linda recalls a time during which Grace, who was 20-years-old at the time, was volunteering in a local kindergarten's canteen in 2017. One day a group of young students made fun of her for being unable to open their juice boxes and packets of food. The mother-of-two said Grace got so upset that she cried for four days in a row after the incident. However, despite the devastating incident, Linda was convinced that they could turn the negative into a positive, and teach younger students about Down syndrome so they would be more knowledgeable. She hired a speech coach and arranged for Grace to give a presentation at Rockwood Valley Middle School, which she had attended, to young sixth-grade students. During the speech, over 100 students watched and listened to Grace as she explained the cause of the disability, the results, and how she lives her life. She explained to the students that when she was born she was told that she would never be able to tie her shoes, as well as a number of different ways the disorder has impacted her life.
After giving the speech, Grace booked several other talks at local schools. The now 22-year-old was asked to be the keynote speaker at a Funding Futures event in Chicago, which raises money for cognition research for people with the disability. Jeff said when Grace was coming on stage to give her powerful five-minute speech, he was 'saying prayers' that it would all go to plan. During the speech, she told the story of how her parents were told she would never achieve much.'I'm here to tell you they were wrong,' she said. One day, while she was doing her research for an upcoming speech, she found a story about a girl with Down syndrome who worked as a model.'Anything is possible,' her mother said when Grace asked if she might be able to become a model as well. In the summer of 2018, Linda hired a photographer to take some shots of Grace and later uploaded them online.
When they were uploaded to Facebook, the series of photographs went viral. Linda was given the contact number for St. Louis fashion designer Ola Hawatmeh by a friend, who told her to give them a call to see if there were any opportunities for Grace. She told the designer: 'My daughter has a dream to become a model.'The the designer told Linda that she would help to make Grace's dream come true. Ola gave Grace some catwalk lessons and designed a dress specifically for Grace, before bringing her to walk in one of her show's at Fashion Week in Atlantic City in February. The audience gave Grace, who still volunteers in schools when she's not modelling, a round of applause as she walked in the finale of a show wearing a long white gown. After doing so well in previous shows, the designer, who says she sees 'courage and beauty', invited the 22-year-old to walk in one of her shows in the fall during New York City Fashion Week.Grace's father Jeff said he wishes he could buy the counsellor, who told he and his wife that their daughter wouldn't achieve much, a plane ticket to come and see her walking in New York City.