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Lingerie brand Aerie quietly released a new images on its website this week that feature women with a range disabilities and medical conditions modeling various styles. The images captured women with arm crutches, type 1 diabetes, vitiligo, and more, wearing everything from the brand's signature bralettes to matching workout apparel.
Aerie, owned by American Eagle, has gradually revealed images from the campaign, displaying on the site's product pages. They are also being shared widely on social media by fans and the models themselves. One of the campaign's models, Abby Sams, shared her excitement about being included, tweeting, "Aerie just sneakily released some of my photos! Look at this disability representation people!!! Also look at me because I cant believe it's actually me so yeah." Abby also tweeted images of three other models and included the caption, "A cancer survivor, down syndrome paralympian, me, and fibromyalgia (+ body hair). Their work in chronic illness and disability representation this campaign was REAL and AMAZING."
Other social media users also chimed in with their excitement over Aerie's campaign. One Twitter user tweeted, "OH MY GOD!!! THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I’VE EVER SEEN MYSELF REPRESENTED IN A MODEL!!!!" Another tweeted, "Absolutely amazing! The confidence of these ladies leaks out of the screen! Fantastic photos, beautifully taken showing ladies being their true selves 💗"
This is not the first time Aerie has received praise for its efforts to diversify and represent women of all different backgrounds. The brand's website features models of various different body types and racial backgrounds, and with the help of their social media hashtag, #AerieREAL, their social media accounts also reflect this inclusivity. As recently as last year, the brand teamed up with All Woman Project for a diverse campaign that released un-retouched images of their models to celebrate natural beauty and promote women's empowerment.
Beth Haller, Ph.D., is Co-Director of the Global Alliance for Disability in Media and Entertainment (www.gadim.org). A former print journalist, she is a member of the Advisory Board for the National Center on Disability and Journalism (https://ncdj.org/). Haller is Professor Emerita in the Department of Mass Communication at Towson University in Maryland, USA. Haller is co-editor of the 2020 "Routledge Companion to Disability and Media" (with Gerard Goggin of University of Sydney & Katie Ellis of Curtin University, Australia). She is author of "Representing Disability in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media" (Advocado Press, 2010) and the author/editor of Byline of Hope: Collected Newspaper and Magazine Writing of Helen Keller (Advocado Press, 2015). She has been researching disability representation in mass media for 30+ years. She is adjunct faculty in the Disability Studies programs at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the University of Texas-Arlington.
