Child with Down syndrome to get modeling work

Thanks to his charm and his mother’s persistence, a Gwinnett County child with Down syndrome will be included in ads for a leading children’s clothing brand.

This week, 15-month-old Asher Nash, of Buford, Georgia, and his mom Meagan Nash, met with representatives of the OshKosh B’Gosh clothing company, Channel 2 Action News reported. His mother hopes shoppers can see Asher not as a little boy with special needs, but as a little boy who models clothes.

The effort by Nash began in July, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Nash submitted her son's photos to a talent agency handling a casting call for OshKosh B'Gosh, which is owned by Atlanta-based Carter's. The agency then told Nash that Asher's photos hadn't even been submitted because OshKosh "didn't specify that they wanted a baby with special needs."

That didn’t sit well with her.

“My first thought,” Nash said, “was, ‘Well, did they say they did not want a baby with special needs?’”

Nash eventually started working with a campaign called Changing the Face of Beauty. And she also went on Facebook to lobby OshKosh to use her son in an ad.

A post highlighting Asher on the “Kids with Down Syndrome” Facebook page got more than 89,000 likes and 100,000 shares in less than two weeks, the AJC reported.

Her work paid off. Friday, an OshKosh B’Gosh representative sent an email saying, “We have extended an invitation to Asher to participate in an upcoming photo shoot and are excited to include him in our advertising,” Channel 2 reported.

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