US disability activist takes to runway to promote access for disabled people

Blake outside her home in DeKalb, Illinois, wearing clothing from Zappos Adaptive Line. Photo: TNS

As a teenager in the 1990s, Melissa Blake was interested in fashion. Unfortunately, fashion wasn’t much interested in her.

Blake, who has a genetic bone and muscle disorder and stands a little under 4ft (1.2m) tall, couldn’t find jeans or dresses in her size. Paging through Glamour and Cosmopolitan magazines, she didn’t see a single person who looked like her.