*The latest model Beyoncé has hired to show off her website merchandise is Jillian Mercado, who has muscular dystrophy and uses a wheelchair.
The shoot was revealed Wednesday on the Facebook of IMG Models, the agency that represents Mercado.
SLAY. Jillian Mercado stars in Beyoncé’s new t-shirt campaign.Watch her episode of “NO SLEEP” here now: bit.ly/1SNpT2N
Posted by IMG Models Worldwide on Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Hours later, Mercado celebrated on Twitter, with the message: “OK LADIES now let’s get in FORMATION! I’m on the official Beyoncé website!!!”
OK LADIES now let’s get in FORMATION! I’m on the official @beyonce website!!!
Photography by @danielavesco pic.twitter.com/ujnY17EdkX— Jillian Mercado (@jilly_peppa) March 16, 2016
The model fashion, who also starred in a 2014 Diesel campaign, signed with IMG in August. Living with spastic muscular dystrophy and confined to a wheelchair, Mercado told The Wall Street Journal that modeling never seemed like “a possibility” growing up. But while a student at FIT, she was asked to serve as a fit model for friends because she fit into sample sizes.
After starring in the Diesel ad, she landed additional jobs including a major gig for Nordstrom. Then she received a letter from someone who admired the Diesel campaign, and it finally clicked. “A light bulb went off, and I suddenly thought, ‘Go big, or go home,’” she told WSJ.
Below, StyleLikeU asked Mercado to participate in their What’s Underneath Project:
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