A New Zealand amputee model has been accused by trolls on social media of touching up her leg for attention.She proved her enemies wrong by modeling for big brands like Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS.She also booked a runway modeling gig for Los Angeles Fashion Week for Issa Rae in collaboration with Delta.
Model and actress Cherie Louise, 30, from Taranaki, New Zealand, has skyrocketed to success, booking amazing modeling gigs despite her disability and the criticism that comes with it. Cherie was diagnosed with a rare bone cancer, osteosarcoma, at the age of six. She began to have a persistent high fever and pain in her left hip.
Osteosarcoma is a form of bone cancer in which the tumors look like early forms of bone cells that usually help make new bone tissue. To save her life, Cherie’s parents were told they had to amputate her entire left leg and half of her pelvis.
Amputation, called an external hemipelvectomy, is an extremely rare and high-risk operation, making it difficult to use prostheses.
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Cherie has received insensitive and hateful comments on social media about her disability, with people even accusing her of photoshopping her leg off for attention.
At the age of 16, Cherie moved to Australia to pursue a career in the fashion industry. She was inspired by an amputee model on Instagram, Mama Cax, who sadly passed away.
Since then, Cherie has gained momentum as a model, signing up with the American agency Other People’s Children. In July 2022, she moved to Los Angeles to continue her career and was quickly cast in Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS clothing campaign.
This year, she was also booked to do her first show at Los Angeles Fashion Week in October. She was due to walk the runway at Sydney Fashion Week, but she was unable to participate after contracting Covid-19.
Despite her success, the hardest part for Cherie is dealing with the instability in the industry.
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She has to be ready at any moment for a casting and it is hard for her to make plans with her friends and family back home.
Cherie talks about her amazing campaign experience for Kim Kardashian and LA Fashion Week.
“After moving to Los Angeles, I was hired for my first campaign for Kim Kardashian’s clothing brand, SKIMS.
“It was their first bra campaign and I was hired to model for the campaign along with so many other amazing women I’ve admired like Brooke Shields and Chelsea Handler. It was a great day with so many models featured in the campaign and the experience was very positive for me.”
He says the production was very well run and he found that the people he worked with were trustworthy and the best at what they did.
“I really hope to work with them again soon. I was booked to walk at LA Fashion Week this year and it was actually my first show. I was booked for my first runway at Sydney Fashion Week in May of this year, and I fell ill with covid just two days before the show. I was heartbroken,” she says.
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Then, in October, she got the call to walk in an extravaganza curated by Issa Rae in collaboration with Delta for Los Angeles Fashion Week. It was another great production for her to be a part of and the perfect experience for her first show.
“I was very proud to have been selected from such incredible models.”
But Cherie also talks about the negative comments she’s received.
“People on social media often accuse me of pretending to have a leg and claim that I Photoshopped it out of my photos to get attention,” she says.
“They can’t understand that images are flipped depending on whether you use your phone’s front or rear camera, or take a picture in a mirror.”
Cherie talks about some of the difficulties she has faced in the industry.
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The hardest part for her, she says, has been navigating the instability of the industry.
As someone just starting to enter the industry, he had had a hard time mentally holding his ground, when “the industry itself is quiet and not much happens.”
“I try to keep myself busy in other ways and I always take steps to try to get more interest/exposure to myself as a model. The industry is unpredictable, and you just have to be ready at all times for something to happen at the last minute.” . You’ll get a casting call for something the next day,” she says.
“That means I can’t really plan to go see my friends or family at home without risking losing my job, and that’s something I’m learning to deal with.
Cherie comments on what she is most proud of accomplishing and her growing success.
She says that her move to the United States to work as a model/actress is her greatest achievement. She had to build her career and her achievements for years before she had enough support to apply for a visa to work in the US.
“I know this visa is really hard to get and getting approved was a big step in my career. I wasn’t sure what would happen after I moved to Los Angeles. I didn’t know if I would get a job or how things would turn out,” she says.
But after being in the US for a few months, she’s been hired for amazing jobs, and she knows this is “where she belongs now.”
Source: news.google.com