Girl With Rare Disease Left Spellbound On Seeing Ulta Beauty Ad Featuring Woman In Wheelchair

A viral photo of a young girl who stopped in her tracks when she saw a beauty advertisement of a woman in a wheelchair is putting a smile on many faces.

4-year-old Maren Anderson, 4, could not believe her eyes as she too is wheelchair bound after suffering from a rare disease caused by gene mutation.

The photo was shared by her mom, Carolyn Anderson, looking at the Ulta Beauty ad in Leesburg, Virginia. “Well Ulta, you absolutely stopped my girl in her tracks this evening,” Anderson wrote in a Facebook post. She wrote, “It was mesmerizing to watch her stop, turn, and gaze at this poster. So thank you.”

Anderson said that Maren is learning how to navigate her new wheelchair for 12 weeks now and started using it in public recently. “On this particular evening, Maren was cruising on the sidewalk in her wheelchair with a confidence we had not seen before,” Anderson said. “She was so eager, we could barely get her to stop at crosswalks. Then, she suddenly stopped and focused all her attention on this image of a woman in a wheelchair like hers. It was amazing.”

The mom said that it was the first time that Maren had seen someone like herself in the picture, and that gave her the hope that there is place for people like her in this world. The post has since gone viral and has received more than 83,000 likes and more than 72,000 shares.

Her parents hope that this picture will help more representation of people with disabilities throughout the world. “It is our hope that families who see images like the one at Ulta Beauty will have open and continued dialogue with their children about inclusion,” Anderson said. “Our wish is that one day it won’t be newsworthy to see our daughter and other people with disabilities represented, it will be commonplace,” she added.

We love this inclusive advertising by Ulta Beauty, and also the impact it is having on people with disabilities all over the world.