Xueli

Photographed for Getty Images - This series focuses on a 14‑year‑old Chinese‑born model Xueli who has albinism, a condition resulting in reduced melanin production of the skin, hair, and eyes. Due to her Albinism she is nearly blind, but that doesn’t stop her from living an active lifestyle – in addition to modelling, she practices Judo and runs triathlons at a national Paralympic level.

After being placed in an orphanage in China as an infant, she was adopted out of her home country and hopes to one day have her face on a billboard to prove that albinism, which is violently and socially ostracised in many countries worldwide, is not something shameful. She’s proud to live in the skin she’s in and strives to make it safer for other people living with the disorder as well.

Photographer: Jonathan Knowles

Art Director: Josie Gealer Ng