14 DAY TRIAL // Seb White lives in Bath, in the UK, with his parents and one-year-old brother, Dominic. Seb already had a flourishing career as a model, appearing in JoJo Maman Bébé campaigns, when he was picked by Marks&Spencer to be one of their in-store Christmas catalogue kids.
His mother, Caroline, 39, posted a complaint on the retailer's website, asking for more diversity in their adverts. She asked why "different children” weren't represented more in ad campaigns.
“He has striking, unusual features, charms the pants off everyone he meets and his little face is full of magic and mischief,” Caroline posted.
The post attracted a lot of attention, and she was contacted by brand representatives just a week later, the Daily Mail reports.
“The response from our customers to Caroline’s post on our Facebook page was amazing. It really was social media at its best,” a spokesperson for Marks&Spencer said.
Reps believed little Seb to be very well behaved and, all in all, a pleasure to work with.
“We always look for kids who have fun in front of the camera and Sebastian was a pleasure to work with,” the retailer spokesperson described.
Caroline explained her frustration when her son was born with Down's syndrome. She thought society would always view him as “different,” and that he would never be included in social activities.
“So here’s the thing. He also happens to have Down’s Syndrome. When he was born I was shocked to my core. […] I knew nothing about the condition and what should have been the happiest day of my life was the worst,” she says.
She hopes her son's inclusion in the popular catalogue will help raise awareness about his condition, as well as help people understand that raising a child with Down's syndrome is not a burden, and it can even prove very rewarding.
“My heartfelt plight is to get him ‘out there’ and get the message across that different isn’t any less wonderful - or even that different.
[…] Hopefully people won’t think it’s a real tragedy because it really isn’t. I wouldn’t swap him for the world,” Caroline added.
