Dressing up shouldn’t just be for Halloween.
Every child deserves the chance to throw on a princess dress or play as cowboy. They get to have fun and feel like their favourite fictional character for a bit, and as a bonus, their joy is pretty infectious.
Photographer Nicole Perkins, from Birmingham, wants to celebrate the fun of dressing up, while also raising awareness of Down’s syndrome.
Alongside doing photography, Nicole, 24, works in a special needs school, so has experience chatting with young people.
She took to social media to ask for models for a new photo series, and the end result was Down Right Beautiful, a collection of adorable photographs of children with Down’s syndrome dressed as their favourite Disney characters.
That thing we said about joy being infectious? These photos are proof. Just look at those beaming faces.
Nicole tells Metro.co.uk: ‘I absolutely love Disney and as it is so magical I thought it would be perfect to celebrate the beauty of Down syndrome.
‘I do a lot of photography work with children who are and are not special needs. Photographing the children who took part in Down Right Beautiful was so much fun!
‘The ones old enough to understand loved their costumes and the younger ones just looked adorable. All of them photographed like pros with help from their families trying to make them laugh behind me. Mr Tumble came in useful quite a bit.
‘Some of the children I have done shoots with before too so we already had good bonds and all of the families that came for shoots were so friendly.
‘I have met the most amazing group of people during this campaign and also other campaigns I have done.’
Since posting a selection of photos on Facebook, Nicole’s work has been shared more than 39,000 times and has attracted comments from people all over the world.
She hopes the series will serve as a celebration of Down’s syndrome and the children born with the condition.
‘I hope the images will send messages out to new parents who have just been given a diagnosis that Down syndrome is truly special and what doctors tell you about it isn’t always right,’ says Nicole.
‘Children with Down syndrome are such a joy to be around and not to mention absolutely beautiful. They bring you a different kind of happiness. A true blessing.’
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source https://metro.co.uk/2019/11/30/children-downs-syndrome-dress-disney-characters-adorable-photo-series-11239174/
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