Tubie Beauty
Ru B photographed by Kaye Ford for Human Beauty
The images that shape our culture are starting to look different. But when will feeding tubes join the diversity trend? Three talents in the fashion, makeup and modelling industries take stock of this changing scene.
American model Tyra Banks was right in saying ‘perfect is boring, human is beautiful’ – and slowly, slowly, the fashion and beauty industries are catching on. Calls for more diversity are (slowly, slowly) seeing disability better represented by brands in the business of aesthetics. Gucci Beauty debuted a fresh face with Down syndrome. Moschino sent a model with cerebral palsy down its New York Fashion Week runway. British Vogue featured a series of disabled cover stars.
Things are changing, but while we know around a fifth of the global population has disability, at last count, less than 1 per cent of fashion and beauty models visibly belong to this cohort. In light of this miniscule number, is it any wonder we don’t see feeding-tubes on billboards, magazine covers or in fashion shows?
Tube-feeding interviewees of this magazine, Stephanie Kelly and Hannah Setzer, have respectively walked in Australian and New York City fashion week shows. However, while these flesh-and-blood talents are making their mark, if you Google ‘tube-feeding model’, you’ll be directed to a ‘tube-feeding simulator’ manikin.
As a concept, tube-feeding is stuck firmly in the medical realm. We’ll see people with feeding tubes on hospital walls, in sick kids’ charity fundraisers and anti-smoking campaigns. But in an ad for a party frock, curling tong or anti-clumping mascara? Never.
Sunshine Coast-based model Anja Christoffersen finds it ironic that, when she was unhealthily thin – a look she says is still standard “model material” – the nasogastric tube she had at this time prevented her from working.
Model and entrepreneur Anja Christoffersen
“I once lost an international modelling contract because my hips were “too big” and my face was ‘too fat’,” Anja recalls. “Then I lost a ton of weight because a surgery that I had that went wrong. I was at my absolute thinnest, which is actually exactly what the modelling industry wanted from me, but what they didn’t want was the visible medical device.”
Anja, who has a rare condition called VACTERL, saw her feeding tube as a lifeline. “It also shifted my perspective,” she says. “I’d always had a disability – since I was born – and then all of a sudden I had a tube strapped to my face and people treated me completely differently. I was shocked.”
As the founder of Champion Health Agency – a talent agency representing people with lived experience of disability and chronic illness – Anja is now part of the solution to tube-feeding’s image problem. However, she thinks the modelling industry has quite the dark motive for not representing this community.
“They’re always going to be very sensitive about having feeding tubes because I think that, deep down, they feel like they caused them,” says Anja. ”I think the modelling industry feels that having a feeding tube on a model – especially a model that is thin – will attract the wrong kind of attention.”
When Anja had her feeding tube, she says her modelling history saw many people – including medical professionals – assuming she needed it because of an eating disorder.
“It got to a point where my dietitian accused me of lying,” she says. “They said, ‘You haven’t had as many feeds as you’re telling me you’ve had. I think that you want to stay this thin’. I was trying so hard to gain weight and it wasn’t working, and it was being blamed on me.”
Eating disorders, as Anja saw for herself while working in Europe, are not uncommon in the modelling world. And enteral feeding is, in some cases, used to treat eating disorders. But as Anja points out, this hardly represents the breadth of tube-feeding experiences.
“Tube-feeding is never shown as just, ‘this is how you are and you can live a happy and fulfilling life’,” says Anja. “It’s always shown like, ‘you’re near death and we need to make you fatter’. It’s not shown as a way of being, it’s shown as a state of transition.”
Anja applauds the growing trend of people with visible disabilities turning up in fashion and beauty campaigns, but notes that feeding tubes, ‘those things that so many people need to survive’, are left out of the picture. Her hope of this changing lies with social media influencers like Champion Health’s own Stephanie Kelly, who shares fashion and beauty content with her feeding tubes in tow.
“I think that will push the shift, because we’re seeing influencers take over the modelling space,’ says Anja. ‘These influencers have consumer power and reach that brands cannot, from a business sense, afford to ignore.”
Ru B photographed by Kaye Ford for Human Beauty
Right now, UK-based Human Beauty seems to be one of the only makeup brands to have featured a model with a feeding tube. In their 2023 campaign, stunning photos capture the smiles of a woman called Ru B, flaunting a metallic silver eye-shadow alongside an NG taped to her cheek.
“It was a non-negotiable that I would have a model with a feeding tube,” says Human Beauty founder Millie Flemington-Clare, whose rare metabolic condition, cystinosis, meant she grew up with both an NG and G-tube.
“It would have been a life-changing moment to have seen such a model in a beautiful makeup campaign. My feeding tube was a huge source of insecurity and I would love to see more representation – within fashion, as well. If I could see a lingerie or swimwear model wearing a feeding tube, younger Millie would leap with joy.
“My personal journey and experiences have driven my passion for makeup and beauty. It’s not just about aesthetics. It’s about empowerment, self-love, and challenging stereotypes. I want to show that beauty comes in all forms, and makeup can be a transformative tool for building confidence and embracing one’s uniqueness.”
Ru B stars in Human Beauty’s campaign alongside what Millie describes as a “full rainbow” of diverse models, including talent from the LGBTIQA+ community, models with disability and a friend of Millie’s who wears her hijab as a Muslim – “which is also a very underrepresented community in the beauty outside of the UAE,” says Millie.
“If a brand like L’Oréal did something like this it would be received with an outpouring of press and called ‘groundbreaking’, when it’s just basic representation. It should be the standard.”
If big beauty brands want to represent the tube-feeding community, according to Millie, there’s nothing stopping them. “They can easily incorporate those with feeding tubes in their campaigns, or, even easier, they can work with influencers who have feeding tubes.”
A favourite of Millie’s is Megan Fisher, aka the Chronic Makeup Artist, who you can meet in Issue Two of The Blend.
“I often talk about how most bullying or ableism comes from lack of knowledge and a big part of this is due to the lack of representation,” says Millie. “If more kids were exposed to those who are different from a young age, they wouldn’t act out or stare when seeing people with visual differences out in society.
“I paid extra to hire models with different disabilities and if I can do it with my life savings – a very small budget – these major brands could do it in a heartbeat.”
Millie found Zu B through global inclusive talent agency Zebedee, which also represents Melbourne-based tube-feeding model Amelia Tang. Amelia has severe post-exertion malaise (PEM), a symptom of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). This is part of the reason they use a G-tube, but other causes are still being investigated.
Amelia Tang photographed by Molly Burmeister
“I’m not able to really eat orally right now,” says Amelia. “I can swallow Coke Zero, I can suck on mints and I like to lick chips,” they laugh. “You’ve got to get your flavour somehow!”
Amelia grew up acting and singing and, at a young age, was working on shows for the ABC and Disney Channel. At around 14, when Ameila’s condition took hold, they lost the stamina for long days on set. In recent months, modelling has proven the perfect way for Amelia to get back in front of the camera, doing what they love – and doing it with their G-tube.
“In a job I recently had, I wanted to make sure that my tube was on show so that people would be able to see that this is a normal thing,” says Amelia. “This is a neutral part of my body. I don’t really see it as a good thing or a bad thing. It’s a life-saving thing. It’s as normal to me as my nose or my mouth. So I think that this should be on show, you know?”
Amelia believes we should all be able see ourselves in the images and stories that surround us. “Growing up queer, it was really important for me to see that represented in the media, so I know the importance of that,” they say.
“We, as a society, still view medical devices as something to feel sad about. There’s not enough education and awareness around them. I think that if the everyday person saw what a positive impact medical devices have on people’s lives, they’d feel very different about them.”
With Australian Fashion Week in their sights, Amelia also dreams of working with inclusive Aussie fashion brands JAM the label and EveryHuman, and mainstream offerings like Kmart and Peter Alexander.
“I’ll certainly fight to get more tube-feeding models into fashion,” says Amelia. “We do exist – and I’m hopeful that we’ll get there.”
We’ll wait, in that hope, for feeding tubes to take hold in the spaces we associate with beauty. For now, tube-feeding makes it possible for new, influential talent to show up, speak out and push for change across these industries. And that, in itself, is a beautiful thing.