Leyla's smile rocks while rocking her extra chromosome

Leyla Davila, 3, of Brockport, is the featured model in campaign for Back From Bali, a fair-trade fashion line available in New York City and online. / Provided photo

Leyla Davila, 3, of Brockport, is the featured model in campaign for Back From Bali, a fair-trade fashion line available in New York City and online. / Provided photo

Leyla Davila is in many ways a typical 3-year-old.

The Brockport toddler loves riding her trike and watering flowers. She is active, engaged — and likes getting her own way.

Her smile is huge and contagious.

Yet Leyla is not your typical 3-year-old.

She can speak three languages: English, Spanish and American Sign Language (at least as well as any toddler could). She can read her favorite books, Noodles and Biscuit.

And she has an extra chromosome.

“When Leyla was born we were terrified of the future,” says Leyla’s mom, Rosa Davila, describing her reaction and her husband’s to their daughter’s diagnosis of Down syndrome. “I had all of these images of what my child was not going to be and what she was going to look like. I was misinformed.”

Three years later, Rosa and a fashion businesswoman from Switzerland are giving Leyla the opportunity to show the world what a child with Down syndrome is really like.

Leyla is the newest model for Back From Bali, a fair-trade fashion line founded by Leslie Kuster in 1992 that is available in New York City and online.

Kuster met the Davila family while both were vacationing in New Mexico in 2010 and was captivated by Leyla’s joyful personality.

“Leyla makes everyone smile,” Kuster said in an email from her home in Zurich. “She is really pretty.”

Leyla made her debut this month to help celebrate Down Syndrome Awareness Month. She is the company’s first model with Down syndrome.

“It’s important for people to see other kids and women in ads that are not the ideal of perfection, but yet are perfectly beautiful still,” Kuster says.

Davila, who agreed to Leyla’s modeling as a “consciousness awareness” effort, agrees. Davila can recall seeing a model with Down syndrome in an ad campaign only twice in the past three years.

“It is important for the public to see the faces of those with Down syndrome to normalize them, familiarize them, and help them from being uncomfortable,” Davila says. “Leslie is opening the space for them to be seen.”

Davila thinks that some people still have outdated images of people with Down syndrome in their memories. Prior to the 1960s, most people with Down syndrome, the most common chromosome abnormality in humans, were placed in institutions.

In taking the photographs of Leyla for Back From Bali, Rochester photographer Amy Emens focused on Leyla’s face as much as the clothes.

“Her smile is amazing,” Emens says. “She is full of life and such a delight to work with.”

Emens is also the mother of 2-year-old Tyler, who has Down syndrome, and is excited her photos of Leyla will be seen around the world.

“I love it,” Emens says. “I wish there were more models with Down syndrome. I know I personally love to see faces of all different types in ads.”

Putnam is a Brockport-based freelance writer.

Be gentle.