River Island aims for diversity with its latest kids’ fashion campaign

We're always delighted to see representations of lots of different children, which is why we love River Island's latest kids' campaign so much.

The retailer has chosen boys and girls with disabilities to be some of the faces of its spring/summer collection. The models have conditions ranging from Down’s Syndrome to cerebral palsy. Among the children joining the River Island Kids' Squad are four-year-old Miley Major, who has eyesight issues, and Teddy Berriman, five, who has cerebral palsy and epilepsy. Also showing off the new collection are four-year-olds Cora Bishop and Gabriel Sohota, who both have Down's syndrome and the youngest model, three-year-old Mia Denham. Mia has cerebral palsy. The eldest of the new crop of models is Lois Groom. The ten-year-old was born with 18q deletion syndrome, a chromosomal condition that can affect a child's growth and muscle tone, as well as hearing, vision, heart and other organs. The campaign is the latest progressive move by River Island. The retailer released a line of gender-neutral kids' clothes last year. "We want River Island to be a place where you can shop to express your own style identity and to cater to a lot of different types of people and see unisex products as a means of helping us do that," Josie Cartridge, customer director at River Island, said of the launch.