Huntington Station model, 21, sets out to represent young women who have Down syndrome

In the year since Alexia Rivera, of Huntington Station, first saw her face smiling down from enormous posters in the windows of Sephora stores on Long Island and nationwide, Rivera, now 21, has continued growing her modeling career, representing young women who have Down syndrome.

She’s filmed a Kohl's online back-to-school campaign. A CVS in-store, social media and in-house video. An in-house video for A&E television. A Gold Bond social media advertisement. A web-based merchandise campaign for The Sims video game, during which she sprawls on a lawn chair in a Sims shirt, sunning herself. And an upcoming Saratoga County tourism campaign touting the great outdoors.

Rivera says she especially enjoyed flying to the Kohl’s shoot in Madison, Wisconsin, where she showed off girls’ clothing. "It was like being a supermodel," Rivera says. "I loved it."

‘A WONDERFUL SPIRIT’

Rivera is represented by Zebedee Inclusive Talent Agency, a worldwide agency that bills itself as "changing the way disability, visible difference, and gender are represented in fashion and wider media." That’s a goal Rivera is on board with.

When companies are seeking to feature inclusion in their advertising, they turn to agencies such as Zebedee for models, says Rivera’s mother, Alexandria, 55, a retired senior vice president of design, who has appeared in the Sephora posters with her daughter.

Rivera has a wonderful spirit, says Bobby Marinelli, director of the Saratoga tourism shoot, which Rivera filmed along with her mother and her father, Eddie, 55, who owns a gym in East Northport. The threesome was videotaped having a picnic of grapes and cheese and crackers, seeing a waterfall and visiting an arboretum. Those images will be plugged into various upcoming advertisements, Marinelli says.

"She was really sweet to work with, and she lit up on camera," Marinelli says of Alexia.

Explains Alexia: "What happens if I go on camera is I feel like a star, and the star of the show, the center of attention."

SEPHORA POSTERS WILL BE BACK

In addition to the new ads Rivera filmed this year, she’ll continue to be featured by Sephora, says Alexandria. Alexia landed the ad less than a year after setting out to launch a modeling career. 

In January 2023, Alexandria approached Zebedee Inclusive Talent Agency about representing Alexia. Alexia had to submit a portfolio of photographs, create an Instagram account (@alexia.eve.irene) and have an in-person interview. By April of that year, Alexia scored her first job, for CVS Beauty. The Sephora then ad shot over four days in June 2023. 

Sephora has replaced them for December with its holiday advertisements but has contracted with the Riveras to extend their run and put the posters up again, Alexandria says. 

All the while Alexia has continued in her Life Skills program for students with mild to severe intellectual and developmental disabilities at Walt Whitman High School — she finishes the program this school year. She learns graphic arts skills, takes acting classes, has been a member of the Walt Whitman High School varsity dance team and participates in a boxing program for kids with different abilities at the gym her father owns in East Northport. And she works through a job training program at Gregory’s Coffee in Melville.

Her goal for 2025: She’s been auditioning for television commercials, hoping to land one in the new year.

By Beth Whitehouse

beth.whitehouse@newsday.comBethWhitehouse1

Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.