Down Syndrome Madeline Stuart to walk in New York Fashion Week

This incredible teen is changing the face of fashion.

Australian model Madeline Stuart, who has Down syndrome, is making history with her runway debut in New York Fashion Week next month.

The 18-year-old from Brisbane has been invited by FTL Moda, an Italian fashion show presenter, to conquer the catwalk at Grand Central’s Vanderbilt Hall in a runway presentation co-sponsored by the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation.

“Guess who is modelling in NY for NY fashion week xx,” she posted on Instagram last week with the hashtag #FashionFreeFromConfines.

The inspiring young woman is following in the footsteps of her hero, “American Horror Story” star Jamie Brewer, who became the first runway model with Down syndrome to walk New York Fashion Week in February.

Stuart — who also goes by the nickname Maddy — began her fashion world rise to fame last year, when she first told her mother that she dreamed of being a model like fellow Aussie stunner Miranda Kerr.

“Madeline has always done whatever she wanted,” her mom, Rosanne Stuart, tells the Daily News. “She wanted to do drama, so she started studying drama three years ago, and now she does plays. She wanted to do gymnastics, and she competed in the Special Olympics. She wanted to go indoor skydiving ... go jet-skiing ... and she did it. I don’t want to stop Maddy from doing anything.”

Nothing stops Stuart. She had heart surgery as a baby, and still takes medication daily for the three holes in her heart and a leaky valve, but she remains very active.

She went on a fitness kick after deciding she wanted to be a model, and had shed more than 40 pounds by May from eating well and doing her favorite sports, including swimming, dancing and cheerleading.

So Rosanne, a former model, took her daughter for a professional photo shoot and posted gorgeous images of her daughter dressed in an orange bikini and flirty floral dress on Facebook.

The eye-catching photographs went viral in May, and the single mother — who was already busy running her own business as a building surveyor — has suddenly found herself managing her daughter’s exploding career.

“I know nothing about PR, but ever since we started her Facebook page four months ago, she’s getting another 5,000 ‘likes’ on her Facebook every day, three to four thousand new people following her on Instagram; it’s just a complete whirlwind,” she says by phone at 6 a.m. Australia time.

Rosanne rises with the sun each day to stay on top of her daughter’s social media feed and field interview requests, which the protective mother is very selective about granting.

“Madeline doesn’t deal with any of this,” she laughs. “She sleeps 12 hours every night, and then I take her to class — her hip-hop dance class, her personal trainer, you name it — and I go to lunch meetings and cook dinner and work on the computer until 1 a.m., and then I wake up at 4 a.m. I need to hire a publicist.”

She also does interviews on her daughter’s behalf, since Stuart gets shy with new people, especially over the phone.

“She won’t talk to you if she doesn’t know you,” Rosanne explains. “She’ll just look at me and go, ‘Mom, who is that?’ But if you talk face-to-face, within five minutes she loves you. And if you really want to get her to like you, bring her a flower or hot chocolate.”

Since Stuart went viral in May, she’s already booked campaigns with Australian label Living Dead, the American athletic brand Manifesta and the Rochester, N.Y.-based Guatemalan lifestyle company EverMaya, which has named its new “The Madeline” bag after her.

The round bag made of handwoven “Zunil” fabric and purple leather is $120 on evermaya.com, and 5% of the sale from each bag goes to the National Down Syndrome Society.

“Working with Madeline is such a positive experience,” says EverMaya president Damian Graybelle.

He raves that Stuart charmed everyone during a day-long photo shoot last Tuesday in Times Square and Central Park for the new handbag campaign.

“She’s the first one to run over and give you an emphatic high-five, or come over and hug you — it’s a very, very refreshing way of looking at modeling,” he says.

She’s also gone global, with fans coming up to her in Central Park from Australia and Mexico asking to take pictures with the budding star. There’s even a Change.org petition with more than 1,800 supporters to get her on the cover of People magazine.

“She is a beautiful soul,” says her proud mom. “She’ll just grab my hand and kiss it when I’m driving her somewhere.”

Stuart aspires to fight discrimination against those with disabilities by gaining attention through social media, according to her personal web page, which adds, “She loves the camera! People need to see how she shines, how her personality just bursts out.”

Her Facebook and Instagram feeds show the cheerful teen, who loves hip hop and has a boyfriend named Robbie, flashing her infectious smile on the Fashion Walk of Fame in Manhattan, and giving sneak peeks behind the scenes at her photo shoots around the world.

 

“It’s not about the modeling or being in the spotlight for us,” says Rosanne. “The modeling is a vehicle to get her word out there. It’s about being inclusive to people with intellectual disabilities and psychological issues that have felt used and abused, or hurt, or excluded from our society.”

The loving mom was devastated the first few years of her daughter’s life, when Rosanne thought about the many milestones her daughter might miss out on.

“I mourned for Maddy for probably the first four or five years,” she admits. “It doesn’t mean I didn’t love her, or that we didn’t have moments of great happiness, but you mourn the fact that they don’t get to go to a ‘normal’ school. You mourn the fact that they don’t get a driver’s license.”

But her daughter’s strength and determination have opened her mother’s eyes to what’s possible for men and women with Down syndrome and other intellectual disabilities.

“People with disabilities often feel very alone, and Maddy is teaching society to give them a chance,” she says.

Her daughter’s future has never looked so bright — not that she’s looking too far ahead. “When you have a child with an intellectual disability, and also health problems, you don’t know what the future holds, and you don’t worry about it every day, or you’ll go insane,” she says. “So we live for the here and now.”