We feel normal until someone decides that we must know their version of the truth.  It is incredibly hard to gain self-esteem when the world decides that you cannot possibly be comfortable in yourself. In the disabled community, scars are not new, rare, or shocking by any means but that doesn’t stop able bodied people from lessening that sense of normality.

I finally realized I am too self-conscious of something that I have never seen myself without. I don’t and will never know what I look like without little lines tracing down my thighs. I’ve decided that I’ve put too much pressure on what social media tells me I must look like because in reality no one gains anything from those false promotions of a regular human body.

James Marshall-Baquedano has a story too many of us know by heart. The words change but the message is always the same. For Marshall-Baquedano the song and dance focused on the tune of “feeling normal until other people told me I couldn’t and that’s what I started focusing on. I started wearing t-shirts in swimming pools just so people wouldn’t notice or point it out. I was getting self-conscious of how I looked.” Because, it seems, to be confident is to have too much power.

For Baquedano his outlet for confidence became fashion because “fashion is where people can really express themselves.” After a look into this immense world of fabric and glamor, he realized that disabled people seemed to be missing from the narrative.

Once James hit University, he began participating in photo shoots, but he wasn’t allowed to properly express himself there.

“It came to doing a shoot where my shirt had to be open. The cameras kinda shut and they’d be like, ‘we’ve seen enough’,  ‘we’ve got what we needed’ and that’s when I started looking deeper into it.” Subtle in their actions or not, images getting misplaced sends a clear and undeniable message. Scars are not normal and they should be kept away. Unlike a regrettable tattoo, this isn’t a mistake with a needle and ink. Not to sound like a hallmark card but, these lines are the road map of our life and we are steadily determined to prove that these roads are not mistakes.

He admits, “I was banking on someone else doing it, like someone else is gonna start doing representation, someone else is gonna start doing this.” When no one did, there was only one thing to do, a leap of faith.

“I kind of was like why don’t I start it and see how that goes”

As he began projects centering disabilities, more and more disabled people wanted to get involved and his projects grew. This then sparked a push for an agency to cement the change they hoped to enforce.

“So I started contacting clothing brands and see if there was any way we could work together and started doing things for free and getting models to shoot for brands,” said Baquedano. He soon founded Able Model Management and is still making progress within the fashion community. James delights in knowing that he “comes away from each shoot seeing a difference in the models.” While confidence is growing and trailing behind, nipping at your heels, is our loyal friend, change. After all, it is all about regaining the idea that disabled people are beautiful and portraying that to the world.

With their platform growing more and more, a current project for his agency revolves around, “a lingerie shoot for people in wheelchairs and it’s not something that people are thinking about but like the second someone does it, it’s gonna start the conversation rolling. It’s about how people in wheelchairs can feel sexy as well … feel comfortable in their skin.” Beauty does not have to be perfection and it is far from what mainstream media is trying to force on us. We all deserve to feel beautiful in our own skin because who’s to say that isn’t our truth? Doesn’t that mean we should feel comfortable sharing our truths in a more understanding world?

“For me, my dream is to see able bodied, able bodied, someone in a wheelchair, able bodied, amputee, and they are all kind of jumbled together rather than separated,” said Marshall- Baquedano.

Disabled people were left behind in the fashion inclusivity movement, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t going to share our stories. I urge people to warp their sense of beauty into something more realistic for all people. We are all beautiful in our individualities. Our bodies have been with us for the high highs and the low lows. We deserve to love it for all it has helped us through. After all, “fashion is for everyone.”

You can find James’ agency at https://ablemodelmanagement.co.uk/ Check out their projects and blog!