We see a lot of ads during the busy holiday shopping season, but rarely do they include people with disabilities. One local casting director is making it her mission to accurately represent our true population.
Kristie Raymond has been involved in the commercial lifestyle photography and modeling world for 35 years. But her latest project is challenging the entire industry to be more inclusive.
“I saw a huge disparity in the photos and videos that my community was producing,” said Kristie Raymond, the founder of HumanKind. “And I felt not only did we lack in diversity at times, we certainly lacked in including a huge portion of our population, which is the disability community.”
According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 1.3 billion people worldwide experience significant disability—which is one in six of us. That’s why Raymond founded HumanKind—casting children and adults with disabilities—to help companies accurately produce images that reflect a diverse world.
“We hope to be able to create talent pools like this in markets around the country so that having talent submitted with traditional models or actors becomes normal and not an anomaly,” said Raymond.
Humankind has about 100 talents ranging across the disability spectrum.
“How did it make you feel when you got to do the piece?” asked Derrah Gousie to her daughter. “Happy!” replied Cecelia.
And that includes 9-year-old Cecelia Gousie from Attleboro. Through HumanKind, she’s been in runway shows, a photo shoot for CVS, and most recently cast in a movie as one of the lead roles.
“Everybody should be celebrated,” said Derrah. “Everybody’s uniqueness should be shown. And when we start just advertising with these picture perfect scenarios, that’s not real life. This is representative of what real life is really all about. And that’s what’s beautiful.”
Cecelia’s mom Derrah says these opportunities have also changed the negative connotation often associated with being disabled and helped grow her daughter’s confidence.
“When you look in the mirror, what do you say to yourself?” asked Derrah.
“I love myself and I always give hugs to people,” answered Cecelia.
Derrah says it’s important for her daughter to see people like herself in ads and allow her to dream big.
“She is worthy of being seen and we just love to watch her shine,” said Derrah.
HumanKind is opening the lens to all of us--- showing people with disabilities are capable and should be represented.
“Photo and video hold the power to change the way we see each other,” said Raymond. “And if we are not doing it accurately, we are doing a disservice to everybody in our community.”
HumanKind has clients all over the Northeast, but Kristie’s plan is to build the talent pool in other cities across the country. As for Cecelia, she’ll know more details about the release date of the movie she’s in—in a few weeks.
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