U.K.'s Biggest Selling Women's Magazine Features Model With Down Syndrome

Christmas cheer is for people of all abilities.

The December issue of Good Housekeeping in the U.K. features 8-year-old Natalia Goleniowska, who has Down syndrome, dressed as an angel. She posed beside her mother, Hayley Goleniowska.

Natalia, or Natty as she’s called, lives in Cornwall, England, and has been modeling for about four years. She and her mother posed for the magazine’s December edition during a London photo shoot in August.

unnamed — Image courtesy of Good Housekeeping UK / Katie Wilson

“The media communicates to the masses what is acceptable, what is ‘the norm,’” Goleniowska wrote on her blog, “Downs Side Up.” “The fact that the UK’s most widely circulated glossy magazine has featured a child with a learning disability as an angel in their Christmas edition is very important news indeed.”

hDAR26Nm — Natty and her mother in hair and make up for the shoot. Photo by Kelly Hearing Dog, courtesy of Hayley Goleniowska.

Christmas is a special time for Natty and her family. Natty was born three weeks early, but her original due date was on Christmas Eve. She’d to spend three weeks in neonatal care before her family could take her home.

Natty getting her hair done before the shoot. Courtesy of Hayley Goleniowska.

We hope people see that children with Down’s syndrome are like any other, they enjoy Christmas and dressing up and acting in their nativity plays alongside their peers,” Goleniowska told The Mighty in an email. “I hope anyone with a new baby feeling worried for their future, perhaps going through a difficult time with their child in neonatal care as Natty was, will find hope in our story.”