Culture
Latina is first Victoria's Secret model with Down syndrome
Puerto Rican Sofía Jirau took to Instagram on Valentine’s to announce that she will be joining 17 other women in the brand’s new Love Cloud collection campaign
February 18, 2022 10:27am
Updated: February 18, 2022 1:31pm
A 25-year-old Puerto Rican woman made history this week after becoming the first model for Victoria’s Secret with Down syndrome.
Sofía Jirau took to Instagram on Valentine’s to announce that she will be joining 17 other women in the brand’s new Love Cloud collection campaign, NBC News reported.
"One day I dreamed of it, I worked on it and today it is a dream come true. I can finally tell you my big secret," Jirau wrote on her Instagram profile in Spanish. "I am the first Victoria’s Secret model with Down syndrome!"
The Love Cloud underwear campaign is modeled by 18 women who challenge the traditional beauty norms typically included in advertising. Along with Jirau, Victoria’s Secret’s campaign also includes Miriam Blanco, who is paraplegic, Sylvia Kwon, who is pregnant, and Celilo Miles, a Nez Perce Tribe-Wildland firefighter.
"There are no limits," she wrote, adding her favorite phrase and life motto, "Alavett!", which means, "I love it!"
Jirau is also joining Joan Smalls as the second Puerto Rican model featured in a Victoria’s Secret Campaign.
The charismatic young model’s career first launched in Puerto Rico in 2019, but a year later she was already walking the runway at New York Fashion Week.
At the time, Jirau said that accomplishment made her feel “proud as one of the few models with Down syndrome who has managed to participate in the important fashion event.”
She also launched her own Spanish-language campaign called "No Limits" to demonstrate the capacity of people with Down syndrome to achieve their goals despite their condition.
Down syndrome is a condition in which a person is born with an extra chromosome, resulting in changes to how the body and brain develop, which can cause both mental and physical challenges -- but Jirau believes those challenges are not limits.
"Thank you Victoria's Secret for seeing me as a model who has #NoLimits and making me part of the inclusive Love Cloud Collection campaign," she said on Instagram. "Inside and out, there are no limits, Alavett!"
She can be seen sporting a bra "in my favorite color, pink," Jirau said in Spanish. "I love it, I love it. Victoria's Secret, I love it!"
