The life of a parentless child is a challenge. Usually these kids have a much more difficult process of adaptation and socialization, and the big world seems to them something frightening and absolutely new.
And if any peculiarities are added to this, including their peculiar appearance, things take a bad turn. And so it was with Xueli Abbing, an unusual girl from China, who was able to become a model thanks to her unusual beauty.
Because of her albinism, she always had very light skin and blond hair. She can’t see well, her eyes are sensitive to light. From childhood Xueli didn’t even dream of a modeling career, however, at the age of 16 her pictures began to appear in fashion magazines.
The little girl grew up in an orphanage: she was adopted at the age of three, due to which Abbing moved to the Netherlands. New parents of the girl did not try to change her daughter’s features in any way: on the contrary, they liked Xueli’s albinism, they did not believe in all the old beliefs that such features bring bad luck.
The first shooting with Xueli happened at the age of 11. Her mother was acquainted with a designer in Hong Kong who wanted to produce clothes for children with special needs. His son had a harelip, and the fashion designer wanted to create an emphasis on those details of appearance that are actually quite common.
After these shoots, Abbing got noticed: her photos began to spread quickly all over Instagram, and in 2019 her picture made it into an issue of Vogue Italia.Now the fashion industry has started to see more and more non-standard models: even the same albinism many consider the norm.
In principle, Xueli is only happy about this approach: as someone who has fought against stereotypes all her life, she is two hands “for” non-standard looks to be more happily accepted among ordinary people.