How do you see individuals with Down syndrome? Today is World Down Syndrome Day (3/21, trisomy 21, get it?), and this year, CoorDown, Italy’s national organization for people with Down syndrome, is asking exactly that question. And they’ve got an incredible campaign video starring none other than Olivia Wilde to help out.
The video, created by Saatchi & Saatchi, pictures Wilde doing everyday things—eating pizza, laughing with friends, running, dancing, while throughout, the video’s narrator, a 19-year-old college student with Down syndrome named Anna Rose Rubright explains, “This is how I see myself.”
“How do you see me?” Rubright asks at the end of the video, as the camera pans from Wilde looking at a reflection of herself in a mirror to Rubright, standing on the other side of the mirror in an outfit identical to Wilde’s.
#HowDoYouSeeMe is exactly what CoorDown is asking this year. The video hopes to start a conversation around that question, and the fact that those living with Down syndrome are often unfairly pre-judged based on their condition.
If you really want to get weepy, check out CoorDown’s Saatchi & Saatchi-produced film from a few years back, in response to a mother who asked the question, “What kind of life will my child have?”
