Alexandra Kutas is set to make her debut at the Ukraine Fashion Week next month. However, what will make the 21-year-old different from her peers is that she is paraplegic and unable to walk.
Kutas has been paralyzed since she was born, after she suffered a spinal cord injury during her birth. Kutas has explained, via the Daily Mail , that she originally became interested in acting at the age of 16 after she was spotted by a photographer.
“I was first interested in the idea of becoming a model when I was 16. I was spotted by a photographer when I was in a cafe one day and she invited me to do a shoot — I was so inspired and realised that modeling was what I wanted to do.”
Alexandra Kutas will feature as part of a number of exhibitions at Ukraine Fashion Week, while she will also work as a hostess at the hugely popular event, too.
Earlier this summer, Alexandra Kutas was part of Break Your Chains, which was a photography exhibition by Andrey Sarymsakov, that looked to touch upon the stigma about disabilites.
#MOD Dis-ABLED Model Alexandra Kutas. #SupportDisabled Models pic.twitter.com/r35l6YfKIe
— Models Of Diversity (@ModsOfDiversity) January 24, 2015
Conoce a esta modelo que aunque no pueda caminar, deslumbra en las pasarelas de París: http://t.co/gXUNvGKjEs pic.twitter.com/c81qoxghfQ
— MasModelos.com (@MasModelos) September 2, 2015
She hopes that this will lead to her getting further fashion jobs, which she will then balance with her other job as a physiologist.
Kutas also works extensively to try and improve wheelchair facilities around Ukraine, too, as she explained, “Ukraine is not very accessible for wheelchair users — I think if I became a model I would have a platform to help others, too.”
Kutas, who hails from Kiev, Ukraine, has insisted that this is only the beginning, though, as she has huge plans to become a bona-fide model on her own terms, and she won’t stop her disability from stopping her dreams come true.
Les presentamos a Alexandra Kutas, la bella modelo ucraniana que destaca en silla de ruedas pic.twitter.com/5k1TH311zC
— Nina Gómez (@Ninaaw_) September 2, 2015
?????????? ????? ??????? ???????? ?? ?????? ???? ? ???-????? http://t.co/T7tJfXbwVA ????? ?????: ??????? ????… pic.twitter.com/jFUeqJNQ22
— iliawerblowsky (@iliawerblowsky) September 2, 2015
Kutas wants her success to pave the path for other models that other suffer from disabilities, too.
“Because of birth injury I could never walk and have always been in wheelchair. But I’m hoping that Ukraine Fashion Week will be a chance to meet designers and voice my own concepts. I have so many ideas about using model with disabilities and I have an idea of how it should look.”
You can check out further pictures of Alexandra Kutas courtesy of her Facebook page .
[Image via photomak /Shutterstock]
