March 19, 201411 yr Three Questions for Natalia Vodianova About Supporting People with Special Needs The Paralympic Games held its closing ceremonies in Sochi on Sunday, and while the competition is over, what endures is the spirit of the athletes, as well as the incredible film put together by model Natalia Vodianova to promote and support #NEVERSTOP, an organization aimed at changing attitudes toward people with special needs—not only during the Games, but all year round. “It’s a cause very close to my heart,” Vodianova says. “My younger sister Oksana was born with cerebral palsy and, during our childhood, we experienced all the stigmas associated with people who have disabilities in Russia.” In the video, the model (and soon-to-be mother of four) runs with a prosthetic leg—and at six months pregnant, no less. The end result: A powerful tribute to those with special needs all over the world. Why did you participate in this video? I see the problem around stigmatizing the disabled as not so much in the infrastructure and the lack of a barrier-free environment in Russia, which is only a consequence of the real problem. The real problem lies in the misguided perceptions and attitudes toward people with special needs. I knew from being in close contact with the organizing committee of the Sochi Games that there is still lack of awareness around Paralympics in Russia, and I thought that to create a viral short film was a way to reach as many people as possible. With that in mind, I took the idea, as well as my passion for the Paralympic cause and my admiration for the athlete, to one of the best advertising agencies in Russia—JWT International—and they came up with the script. Tell us about shooting the video? Was it difficult? What were the special effects? We shot with Bruno Aveillan, which was not a new experience for me since we worked together on the story of Shalimar, one of the oldest perfumes in the world. I knew he was an incredible talent, but also a great technician, and what I needed was to make one of my legs bionic with the help of CGI. He was my first and only choice, and luckily he kindly agreed to do it—and even waived his fee. The story of the project is quite unique, actually, because everyone involved did the same—from JWT International Moscow, Bruno and his team at Quad Productions, the makeup and hair and styling team, the composer Raphael Ibanez de Garayo, to Coca-Cola Russia, who refrained from any brand positioning or even color reference in the film to keep the message pure and genuine. We shot over two days. Going from need to an idea to a few miracles along the road in just a few months, and then to actually see it happening, was really an amazing feeling. Everyone was so happy to be part of it, and the team was so supportive and professional. We filmed when I was six months pregnant, which was far from the ideal time to do it, but I was careful and took breaks. That said, I definitely ran toward the camera with my face full of purpose, but the minute I was out of frame I would scrunch up in pain. What do you hope people understand by watching this? The idea of the film was to raise awareness and inspire people to watch the Paralympic Games—which just wrapped up—and also to help bring attention to important values such inclusion and tolerance. What I learned from some of the athletes is that even the biggest challenge can be seen not as an obstacle, but as an opportunity. We choose everyday the way we perceive our life, and with their strength and determination these athletes show us that you can take the best from what’s on offer, and to me, people like that should be seen as role models—they deserve only admiration, praise, and our undivided attention. vogue.com
March 20, 201411 yr Natalia Vodianova: Nothing was wrong with me — but I was always with my sister so we were excluded A tough start in Russia has given supermodel Natalia Vodianova a formidable ability to fight. She tells Charlotte Edwardes about Putin, parenthood and growing up with a disabled sibling CHARLOTTE EDWARDES Published: 20 March 2014 Updated: 13:01, 20 March 2014 One thing I’m told about the Russian supermodel Natalia Vodianova before meeting her is that she is as steel-cored as the motor-building factories of her home city of Nizhny Novgorod. “So alpha she is almost male” is one observation. “Tenacious” is echoed by several more. But the other thing about Vodianova is that she is startlingly, disarmingly, mesmerisingly pretty. At 32 she’s like a pale, slightly underfed child. She is tucked at a corner table at the Langham Hotel in Regent Street, her slim fingers twisting a gold chain around her neck, slim legs pulled into long denim, compact eight-month pregnant bump all but hidden beneath a sweatshirt covered with hearts. (“My fourth,” she acknowledges when I indicate. “Due May 1.”) Small talk about babies looks unlikely, however. Any slips off course in the conversation are put firmly back on track. Vodianova doesn’t have that wide-vowelled, deep chewy accent of some of her compatriots, but pauses frequently to identify the exact word she wants. We’re here to talk about her “Never Stop” campaign, which aims, in the afterglow of the Paralympics in Sochi to continue the fight against prejudice toward the disabled, particularly in Russia, where the prevailing attitude is, to put it bluntly, Victorian. It’s a subject that resonates. Vodianova’s half-sister Oksana, 27, was born with cerebral palsy (and later additionally diagnosed with “severe autism”). While it’s known that Vodianova came from a “poor” background (the anecdote about her selling fruit in a local market at 11 has long served to emphasise her Dickensian rags-to-riches roots), the real ditch in the family’s finances came when her mother decided to bring up Oksana herself. In Russia, the majority of babies born with disabilities — 70 per cent — are handed to state institutions at birth. (I use the phrase “to be looked after”, but she leaps on it. “Those are big words for how the state treats them,” she says. “Abandoned is better.”) Her mother’s decision had severe consequences. She lost her full-time job. And then Oksana’s father Alexander walked out of the family home. “He wanted to give Oksana to be abandoned,” Vodianova explains, “because like many people in Russia he didn’t see the point or value of this child. He thought, ‘We can have other children. They can be healthy. Why put us through this?’ “To keep your child and to expose yourself and everyone close to you to great despair, permanent despair and great hardship is a huge act. Certainly no one thought my mother was a hero.” There were problems on another level too. They were ostracised for keeping her sister at home. “Nothing was wrong with me but I was always with my sister so we were excluded. I always felt that stigma.” She says both adults and children would taunt. “We really didn’t have anywhere else to go, we were just outside on the street.” Vodianova — whose own father left when she was two — did everything to help. She left school at 11, babysat and worked, while her mother tried to hold down a rotation of different jobs that barely saw them scrape by. Their high-rise apartment was mortgaged so many times, “it was owned by the bank”. There is, she points out, “a difference between poverty and having so little that you really have nothing to eat. Not being able to feed your children anything at all.” Did she go to bed hungry? “Oh yes. Or sometimes a soup out of a sachet would be the only food all day. No bread with it, because we couldn’t buy the bread. It’s a very hard reality, but we would think, ‘Well at least we have a home.’ Everything is relative.” What she learned from her mother was, “prioritising my children’s needs before my own,” she says. “I never questioned my mother’s love once. Sometimes that’s a luxury in [wealthy] families that have everything. You can become more detached from your children. The focus shifts onto you. My mother was there every day. But she never once complained. She really never once said, ‘Why can’t I just have a normal life?’.” Some 15 years after he left, Alexander and Larisa reconciled. “He’s a fantastic father today,” says Vodianova. “She forgave him.” Does she feel she missed out on an education? “Education is not one-dimensional. Yes, maybe I missed out on a few clever words or some specific knowledge or that confidence that a certain education gives you, however I didn’t miss out on really experiencing life and learning first hand how to manage situations, how to work hard, how to fall and pick yourself up, and actually conduct a real business just by doing it. That’s what my childhood was definitely good for.” Vodianova was discovered by a model scout and shipped off to Paris aged 17. “I knew if I didn’t start sending money back, they could be on the street. They said that there are millions of girls like me and it’s not definite, but I took the chance.” While in Paris she learned to speak English in two months, and it was here that she met Justin Portman, now 44, a wealthy English aristocrat, whom she married aged 19 and eight months pregnant with their first child Lucas, now 12. They moved to New York and went on to have Neva, seven, and Viktor, five. Vodianova’s fame was instant and the couple were magnetic on the New York scene. Visitors to their apartment said it was awash with hangers-on staying until the sun came up. “It was very far emotionally from Russia,” she says. “I became successful very quickly with numerous contracts.” Among them were Calvin Klein and L’Oréal, worth millions. “New York loves you when you are on the top, it’s unlike any other city,” she says. “It lifts you up and says you are amazing. And it was an amazing experience. But coming from where I came from, it was short-lived. With my background one of the first things you learn is never be too happy; you never know what’s coming. Never feel too safe. If you are a survivor, you can’t just drop those tools.” She also felt deeply “unfulfilled”. “It was too extreme to come from nothing to that amount of money with nothing in the middle. It was my charity that really connected the two dots,” she says. In 2004 she started the Naked Heart Foundation, which builds play parks for kids across Russia. As the family grew bigger, she and Portman, a painter with something of a lotus-eating reputation, relocated to Sussex in pursuit of a “quieter life” and her younger sister, Kristina, now 18, came to join them. Sadly the marriage foundered. She doesn’t talk about it but says that when fortune favours you, you have a duty to give back. “When you are given something like this you can’t just retreat. You can’t go off…” she shrugs, “to India or somewhere. I can’t spend the rest of my life in ‘om’ because I have arrived financially. [it doesn’t mean] I don’t need to do anything else. “If you are given certain advantages in life, there is a purpose. You cannot reject it. For me it was about using the platform, or the life that I was living today, together with the tools from the past to channel them to something else. It was about finding my own place in this world, a balance.” Paris, where she now lives with Antoine Arnault (son of Bernard of LVMH), the father of her baby, is she says, “tranquil.” “In my personal life I look for peace, stability, time for home, time for my family. I look for concrete things.” I ask if she has any views on Putin and the annexation of Crimea. She says she’d been afraid that turmoil in Crimea would take attention away from coverage of the Sochi Paralympics, an event she has been involved with for four years. “I hoped that [his] actions [in Crimea] wouldn’t steal the moment of this important event.” In the end, she says, the coverage was good. “And I must say I had great admiration for Putin because he was present at the opening and closing ceremonies.” Russia topped the medals table with 80 medals, 30 gold. In 1980 the Soviet Union refused to organise a Paralympics saying there were no disabled people in the country. That’s some progress? “There’s still a long way to go,” says Vodianova. To support the NHF visit the Foundation’s website at nakedheart.org or follow Natalia on Facebook.com/NataSupernova.http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/natalia-vodianova-nothing-was-wrong-with-me--but-i-was-always-with-my-sister-so-we-were-excluded-9204833.html
March 24, 201411 yr Natalia Vodianova: "I used to fight!" Interview , March 24, 2014, 12:25, Photos: archives press services On the eve of the last Paralympic Games model Natalia Vodianova released a video titled # NEVERSTOP, which once again supported the athletes and everyone else recalled that should never stop! Editor "Lady Mail.ru» Nino Takaishvili talked to her about the fund "Naked Heart" charity, fashion and beauty. - Natalia, you have many years of a "face" of Russian charity. Tell us how it all started, why are you so tightly that do? - Perhaps this is due mainly to the fact that when I had the opportunity to help other people, I just could not sit idly by. I know how to be tough, if placed in a position in which was once my family. Difficulties through which I passed, I will forever remain somewhere inside. They largely raised my character. So I can understand someone else's loneliness, helplessness and other states ... My job has given me the opportunity to do something for others. And although the fashion world, of course, is not associated with the struggle for survival - a bright, positive, beautiful world - I know what is real life. - You used to fight? - Yes, to live in peace, I can not. (laughs) I used to fight and survive, it is a condition that can not be rid of, otherwise I live just do not know! Fortunately, I immediately realized that a constant need to fight for something and sent it, I think, in the right direction. I am glad that this has resulted in it charity. After all, when you do good, you get back a huge amount of positive energy. - Why do you have accepted the offer to become an ambassador of the Paralympic Games in Sochi and the last four years actively attracted attention precisely to the Paralympics? This is due to your sister who has cerebral palsy and autism? - Reasons I had both public and private. Fund "Naked Heart" for several years working on improving the living conditions of people with disabilities, so we understand that Paralympics in Russia is not just another sporting event, but an opportunity to focus on the problems that are fighting these people and their families. As a child, caring for Oksana, walking with her on the street or playing in the yard, I am constantly faced with hostility and even aggression. In Russia to refer to people with disabilities? Pity, feel pity - in the best case. And at worst - with hostility and contempt. And this attitude still remains. - And you took a short motivational film in support of the Paralympic which appeared in the image of a girl with a bionic prosthetic leg, thus showing that the tragedy can happen to anyone, but still need to move forward ... - I would say even more. The film shows that it can happen to anyone, and we all need to think about it even for a second. A thought, you can not but admire the force of will, which has every Paralympic athlete! And then there is the question of the attitude towards disability in general ... If this happened to you, then surely you would like to have looked at you with pity, and not with admiration, as we look at the Paralympics? How is a person with a disability depends largely on others. If it every day say that something is wrong, that it is inadequate, limited, and it will behave. Paraatlety demonstrate boundless fortitude and willpower, including physical capabilities, and not vice versa. Paralympians - role model for all of us, because they are primarily taught to win themselves and through it - the prejudices of others, and this is sometimes the hardest. - Natalia, and you love to come from time to time in Russia? And how important to you bond with your kids Russian culture? - I try to come as often as possible, and if it were possible, I would gladly moved to Russia for good. But, unfortunately, I can not - it's not just depend on me. I always feel a connection with their country, because every day I communicate with my team of fund "Naked Heart", we are always in touch. Now I am very positively disposed - it seems to me that Russia is gradually changing, moving toward the better, I can see how what we do, every year it becomes more and more popular, and we find more understanding. - And your children are happy to come to Russia? - Yes, for them it's always a great joy! They realize that half Russian, know a lot about our culture, starting with cartoons and fairy tales characters. I, as a mom, I try to give it to them. - Houses in Russian you talking about? - Yes. With younger only in Russian, but with Lucas, my oldest son, unfortunately, no. I just had a very young mother when he was born, lived very far away from Russia, relatives were not there. I felt lonely for a while ... In the end, missed this point with the language. Of course, Lucas understands everything, free watch movies, but speaks with a very strong accent. We often agree with him that we will now only speak in Russian! But then it becomes difficult, we turn to English ... Frankly, I'm very sorry about this. - And how do you explain to your children that there is a need to help others? After all, they grew in abundance, and unlike most you have not seen that life is not always simple and beautiful. - Children are best not to tell, but to show that they all saw with our own eyes. Children, they are ... Like little sponges, they absorb very, very quickly. Just tell them about something enough, it is not as effective. I never protect our children from reality, I try to show them that what life is really. For me it's just because I'm constantly doing this every day. When I travel, for example, in an orphanage, I take my kids with me. They see everything yourself, I do not need to explain how they are lucky in life that they do not need to think about tomorrow, they have a mom and dad, they always have something to eat and wear ... They all passed through. As a result - I have a very good children. - Let's talk a little bit about your work. What's in the profession model you like the most? - It's still very creative Profession, I can say, rest at work. Work model - is constant communication and joint work with talented people, besides the work associated with beauty ... It helps a woman always remain a woman, so I work very "feeds". And thanks to the fashion industry I can do what I consider important - charity. - Do you share what looks like every day, in everyday life, and that what needs to be in the process? - If I passed you on the street, maybe you would notice me, but most likely would not have thought that this Natalia Vodianova. People find it hard to believe that the models just walking the streets, and do not dress up every day in the bright designer clothes. I hope that by the look just as stylish girl - no more. - Do the clothes his weakness? - No, it's just part of my job. I have access to the best, and I only use it occasionally. Like any girl I get excited at the sight of a beautiful dress. Of course, when I feel that I look good, it cheers me up, just like any other woman. But I'm not obsessed with things. - Natalia, please tell me you have any in your wardrobe items and accessories that are especially dear to you? - There are some things that I have to save my daughter. About once a year comes the thing that I think can go into the history of fashion. - After 20 years your daughter will have a decent collection of vintage! - Yes, she was very lucky. For example, I have a few dresses Valentino the period when he worked for the brand Valentino Garavani. This archival, cult objects. I myself wore them, they become part of my history. I think that for my daughter is going to be very personal and important items of clothing, so I try to take care of all this for her. - And the last question. Many say that you look very young. I think rightly so. What are your beauty secrets? How you care for your face? - Yes, of course, I will share with pleasure. The most important thing - I'm doing business, which I love. I understand that maybe not everyone has the opportunity, but I advise everyone who has ever dreamed to do what he really wants to rethink everything and weigh it again! However, the extraordinary elixir of youth - it's just doing what you love, that gives you strength, no matter in which you are able to, no matter how tired you are! I have always found strength for what I'm doing on your Fund. For me, it is so important that there is no time, for example, to hurt! I'm sure if I did not do what I'm doing, then surely very different feel. It was part of my spiritual beauty-prescription! (laughs) - A practical? - First, let it sounds strange, but I ask all girls: always rinse makeup! Whatever you are tired, no matter how much champagne drunk, like yourself are feeling. Go to bed a painted - it's almost criminal! I hope that you and you remember about it. (Laughs.) Secondly, the most important thing is not so much to choose the right makeup, how much care products. For the young and very young skin, I would advise to always start with something very light, such as La Roche-Posay or Avene. Something. All these French pharmaceuticals neutral and light - what is needed for young girls. For girls my age, I can recommend a series of Guerlain Super Aqua. For many years, only use it even to take with me to the shooting, this product works well as a base, it can be applied under the foundation. I also often use thermal water. Watch carefully for all that apply on your skin - all funds must be gentle. And finally about the figure. Remember that everything is good in moderation, keep balance. So do not forget that there is a need all! Sometimes we need a little sweet and a little fat ... But if you want to look fresh, like a ripe Pomidorka need those same tomatoes include in your diet! Eat more vegetables. (Laughs.)
March 25, 201411 yr #NEVERSTOP: 5 Questions With Supermodel and Paralympic Games Ambassador Natalia Vodianova By: Journey Russia Mar 25, 2014 Russian supermodel and philanthropist Natalia Vodianova is featured in #NEVERSTOP, an inspirational film and campaign designed to raise awareness of the Paralympic cause and people with disabilities. In the 90-second film, which launched just before the Sochi Paralympic Games, the 32-year-old asks herself an important question: "What if it became difficult to move forward?” She is shown with a bionic leg, which serves as a shocking reminder that any of us could be confronted with a debilitating injury. We caught up with Vodianova to learn more about the campaign: How did the idea for #NEVERSTOP come together? Tell us a little about its implementation. As an ambassador for the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Games, I have been involved with various projects to leverage my position as a visible person and attract as much as possible attention to the Paralympic Games. I understood from the beginning that the Games needed that push. In Russia, people with special needs are not as integrated into society as in other countries. It’s something I know from experience. When I was six years old, my sister was born with cerebral palsy and a deep case of autism. So growing up, I was exposed to the stigma people with disabilities face. The more positive attention we create for people with special needs, the better. Paralympic athletes are a perfect example of human strength and the incredible ability of the human spirit to strive on and to be much more powerful that their physical ability sometimes allows them. I knew that a viral film people could share would be a very good way to bring attention, so this idea was always in my mind. When I went to JWT in Moscow and asked them to create a film, I described how I wanted to change the public’s perception of people with special needs. I see them as role models who can inspire us to overcome the challenges we face in life, and to see challenge as an opportunity. #NEVERSTOP epitomizes all the other ways I’ve tried to bring attention to our Paralympic athletes and the Paralympic Games. I shared script ideas with the organizing committee of the Games, and with Dmitry Chernyshenko. This particular script had the most viral potential because it shows how it can happen to all of us. I shared with the creative team and director Bruno Aveillan how inspirational these people are to me. I also shared my concern that many people see disability as a weakness and something worth only pity. I think the most import message – if it happened to any of us, how would we like to be perceived? How would we want to be seen? Would we like everyone to think that with some support, strong will and perseverance we can be strong enough to do and achieve great things, maybe even more than we did before? Many Paralympic athletes I met talked about their disadvantage giving them a great focus to succeed, which was something of a challenge when they had their fully able bodies. This is what we wanted to communicate with the project. It was very important to know what would come after the Paralympic Games; what we can leave behind in Russia. It has been incredible, and made me very happy to see the Games attract so much attention from the media, from fans, and from so many people who saw my message. We saw how people absolutely understood, and were inspired by, this film. Tell me about the results of the #NEVERSTOP campaign. We created a website, nvrstop.org, to collect words of support for Paralympic athletes and the project. Many people used the #NEVERSTOP hashtag during and after the Games. They are talking about the Games, the film, and important daily achievements. Now the Games are behind us, but people still using it as inspiration. This means that the legacy of the Games is continuing. The goal is to change attitudes. If a few people out there have looked at disability from a new angle, then our work and efforts were worthwhile. Did you attend the Paralympic Games in Sochi? I’m almost eight months pregnant, so I unfortunately could not be there. But I certainly celebrated the extraordinary atmosphere in Sochi and was very proud of the way the Games were organized -- from the beautiful opening and closing ceremonies, to the incredible success and achievements of the Russian teams, including many athletes I have met personally. For example, Inga Medvedeva, the star of these Games, and Mikhalina Lysova, who won six medals, including three gold. Inga has an especially beautiful story. I was moved when I met her back in 2012 in Moscow while producing a story for Glamour magazine on our beautiful Paralympic athletes. She is 39 and has a little daughter, Lena. She is an incredibly strong, beautiful athlete and woman who skies on one leg. I love to ski and cannot imagine how she competes with other athletes with two legs! I know how important it was for her and how much work she has put into achieving that, and I know it was a dream for her. More importantly, she wants her daughter to feel proud. I understand that as a mother. Mikhailina, who has a visual impairment, won gold in biathlon and skiing. She is a beautiful girl, especially when she smiles. I was extremely happy for her success and felt I could share it with her as she also was one of the athletes we included in our Glamour story. Have societal attitudes toward Paralympic Games changed? These Paralympic Games were the best ever, according to Sir Philip Craven himself, head of the IPC. The number of tickets sold in Sochi was a record. I also know that we had a record of streaming hours of TV broadcast for the Paralympic Games on RBK. In general, when you see Paralympic athletes in action, it’s hard to stop watching. You are so proud of, and inspired by, them. So the most important thing to do is to turn that TV on! Then you will talk about it with friends, share on social media and help promote a different attitude towards people with disabilities sometimes without even realizing you are doing it. What makes you happy? Happiness is a sensation, and I never take it too seriously. However, I certainly feel it rising inside me quite often, because I do have a lot to feel happy about. What makes me feel happy the most is that I’ve been able to connect the dots between my past, which by many standards was not the easiest, and also my incredibly fast and early success, which felt at the time like a bucket of cold water thrown on me. My work with the Naked Heart Foundation was what acted as the glue, giving me a reason to live and continue fighting -- not just for myself, but for others, which is much more rewarding and fulfilling.
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