Finn Ability Fashion

Editorial for Quadro Magazine Team credit: Photo: @zuzu.valla Model: @katifromfinland Represented by: @zebedeetalent Muah: @dxrcee.mua Graphic design: @katiefoknprice "Empowering Elegance: Meet Kati, Finland's Trailblazing Disabled Model Redefining Beauty Standards" An individual, in a street scene. How do some stand out and some don't? Everyone wants to belong to a group but also be heard and seen. I'm Kati Aartoila, Finland's first international disabled model. I haven't found any other disabled models from my home country, but I decided to follow my childhood dream of being a model. I grew up without the experience of feeling heard and seen because of the lack of representation in the fashion industry. I've had to imagine that feeling up until now. Being in front of the camera I feel I'm alive, I enjoy creating art. It feels like time stops around you, you're in a new dimension and you're creating an incredible story together with the photographer and the team. I know in my heart that I can change people's perception of beauty, prejudices about disability and be a role model for other disabled people, especially those who have the same disability as me, Erb's Palsy. It's paralysis, and I have it in my right arm. It can occur at birth or as a result of an accident for example. I have the power to give others the experience of identification, to feel seen as a human being, and that makes me really happy. We can rewrite reality together.