She has fronted major fashion campaigns and walked in five Victoria’s Secret shows, but in-demand model JACQUELYN JABLONSKI recently skipped the FW15 runways for a cause closer to home. By CELIA ELLENBERG.
Jacquelyn Jablonski’s Instagram account is a pretty accurate representation of the life of a model whose career is on the rise. There are the requisite selfies, the exotic shoot locales and the healthy food snaps, but last summer, sandwiched between a few snaps from a vacation in Thailand and a magazine tear-sheet featuring her toned abs, Jablonski used her popular social-media platform to share some slightly different news. “Senate Approves Bipartisan Deal To Protect Federal Autism Funding” read the headline from a news byte, referring to the passing of the Autism CARES Act, the bill that will dedicate over $1.3billion in US federal funding towards the disorder over the next four years. Below it, Jablonski had added four hand-clapping emojis, plus a heart.
“My brother was diagnosed [with autism] at the age of two and my parents didn’t know much about it,” says the 23-year-old model, today clad in a white tee, Re/Dun jeans and black Balenciaga boots, typical of her “masculine with a feminine twist” style. The eldest of four children – two sisters, Allyson and Kathryn, and her brother, Tommy – New Jersey-born Jablonski was six years old at the time. “All I remember is the doctor saying, ‘He may never speak,’” she recalls. “I didn’t understand. I just kind of hoped that someone would figure out a cure as he got older.”
Autism is a spectrum disorder that impairs a child’s ability to communicate, interact and develop socially. The ‘cure’ Jablonski was hoping for has not been forthcoming. “There is still not much known about autism and why it happens. I always knew I wanted to get involved [in campaigning for it],” she says, but admits she had no idea how – until modeling provided the answer.
As Jablonski tells it, she was scouted during her “hippie phase” at the age of 15, while working in a deli in New Jersey. As a freshman in high school and an avid athlete who played both basketball and soccer, the tall, long-limbed brunette with green-gray eyes brushed off the initial interest. But when her uncle, who had dabbled in modeling years earlier, put her in touch with a photographer to take a few test pictures, Jablonski gave it a shot, and was quickly snapped up by Ford Models.
It was slow going at first, but that was fine with Jablonski, by then 16, who was busy with school and sports. In fact, when the FW09 shows beckoned, she made the decision to stay in school instead. Later that summer, though, she got an irresistible casting call.
“They’re still some of my favorite pictures,” she says of the black-and-white Sebastian Kim-lensed Calvin Klein Jeans campaign that catapulted her into the global modeling spotlight. She deferred her acceptance at Connecticut’s Fairfield University and boarded the fashion roller-coaster ride, logging a breakout SS10 season that included walking the runway for Prada, Balenciaga and Marc Jacobs, followed by yet another campaign coup for Phoebe Philo’s first-ever Céline collection.
“I have to thank my mom,” says Jablonski, unprompted. “She would drive me to castings at the drop of a hat. And my sisters: they were amazing, always helping out and babysitting my little brother.” Two years ago, she figured out a way to repay them.
After contacting the autism advocacy organization Autism Speaks, Jablonski began attending events to help raise awareness. In June 2013, she took matters into her own hands, and gathered the fashion glitterati in New York for a silent auction of donated fashion items and photography, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the charity. With less than 60 days to plan it, she raised over $32,000, thanks in large part to a black-and-white Patrick Demarchelier print of two elephants that sparked a bidding war between the designers Olivier Theyskens and Prabal Gurung. Then, in April last year, she partnered with Mazdack Rassi of New York’s Milk Studios to host another auction of photographs, which brought in just over $70,000. This time, it was a Demarchelier print of giraffes that caused the biggest commotion, pitting fellow models Joan Smalls and Constance Jablonski (the two are not related) against each other in a bidding war, ultimately won by Smalls.
“I am thankful to have so many people in the industry be so supportive,” says Jablonski. But it is the smile on Tommy’s face and meeting other families who benefit that provides the greatest reward. “That’s what makes me happiest; that’s why I’m here,” she says.
It’s also the reason she’s starting her own foundation. Jablonski took the FW15 show season off to work on her next project, tentatively called Autism Tomorrow, which will focus on adults with the disorder. “There’s a generation of teenagers with nowhere to go, and 90 percent of adults with autism are unemployed,” she says. “[I want to set up the foundation] so they can live a life like you or I.”
Jablonski is currently working on another auction for National Autism Awareness Month in April next year. It will be “bigger and better,” she promises. “I’ve got, like, 30,000 ideas.” And, hopefully, some more Demarchelier prints. Visit autismspeaks.org for info.
