WE’VE spent 15 years championing women, so we caught up with three whose lives changed after featuring in the magazine.
Ellie Goldstein, 21, is a model and lives in Essex with her parents Yvonne, 58, and Mark, 61.
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I showed a million people it’s your differences that make you special
Ellie Goldstein
“As another minute ticked by, I wondered: ‘When will Mum get back from the shop?’
“Then suddenly she appeared, a pile of magazines in her hands and a huge smile on her face.
“There I was on the cover in a gorgeous dress, hand on hip, staring right into the camera.
“It felt like a dream, but this was real. I was a Fabulous cover girl – and one of the magazine’s Women of the Year 2021.
I’d always wanted to model. I was born a diva and loved attention, plus I knew I had the confidence and personality to make it.
With a passion for fashion, I adored makeovers and shopping with my big sister Amy, now 28.
But whenever I read magazines or looked at adverts, I never saw a girl like me.
That didn’t stop me dreaming, and my incredible granny Freda, who died in 2013, aged 91, was my biggest cheerleader.
She was super-confident, straight-talking and loved shoes, just like me.
She always told my mum Yvonne that I was going to be something big.
Along with Amy and my dad Mark, Mum also believed in me 100%.
My whole family raised me with love and to know that I could do anything.
So when one day in 2017, a friend of Mum’s told her to turn on the TV, explaining that a new agency specialising in models with disabilities was looking for talent, she snapped some pictures of me.
Within days, we were on our way to London for a meeting. They signed me on the spot.
I had some amazing jobs, loving the energy and fun of photo shoots. But being chosen for Gucci’s beauty campaign in February 2020 was something else.
I was the first person with Down’s syndrome to model for a major fashion house and I felt so proud.
All of a sudden, I was the model that I hadn’t seen when I was young.
By the winter of 2021 I’d worked on campaigns for brands including Nike, Superdrug, Primark, Laura Mercier and Vodafone.
That November I got a call to tell me I had been booked for a fashion shoot for Fabulous.
I always have fun, but it was one of my favourite shoots. Music blasting, in between shots I taught everyone TikTok dances.
The fashion was incredible, and I loved having my hair and make-up done.
Seeing the images of me striking poses on the screen, I couldn’t stop smiling. I didn’t want it to end.
And it didn’t! A few days later I had an amazing surprise – the magazine wanted me to come back to London and do a cover shoot for the Women of the Year Issue.
I was to be the face of it and named one of the Women of the Year, along with the likes of Emma Raducanu and the Queen. I was totally overwhelmed.
In my interview, I got the chance to talk about the things that were really important to me, like how I wanted to break down barriers in modelling, increase inclusion and show that anything is possible.
I was so impatient to see the issue, I must have driven Mum mad. Finally having it in my hands was the best feeling.
It was amazing to think that over a million other people were reading the magazine. I had tears in my eyes and the biggest smile on my face.
The comments I had afterwards from readers saying I was a role model who inspired others made me even happier.
I remember them when I look at the feature today. Because the Fabulous cover story wasn’t just about me in an amazing dress.
Then – and now – I want people to know that they shouldn’t give up on their dreams. Be confident and don’t change who you are. Our differences really do make us special.”
I met a friend for life through the magazine’s charity trek
Laura Middleton-Hughes
Laura Middleton-Hughes, 34, is a content creator and lives in Norwich with her husband Brad, 41, a taxi driver.
“Waking up in my tent, the Pirates Of The Caribbean theme tune began to blast out of my tent buddy’s phone.
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She told me it was her alarm and we both burst out laughing.
It was August 2016, and I was one of 52 people taking on Iceland’s Lava Trail as part of the Fabulous Charity Challenge to raise money for CoppaFeel! – a charity close to my heart.
Like the charity’s founder Kris Hallenga, I’d been diagnosed with breast cancer in my 20s, learning I had stage 3 primary breast cancer in February 2014, aged just 25, after discovering a small lump in my left breast.
The last two years had been pretty awful, with my life revolving around life-saving treatment, including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, plus a mastectomy and reconstruction.
When I finished treatment, I was ecstatic to be cancer-free, but I also felt lost and directionless.
Before my diagnosis, I was the fittest I’d ever been, but my treatment put paid to that.
Then, after I posted about my challenge, Nuffield Health offered me a free gym membership and PT sessions.
With their help and plenty of hilly walks with my husband Brad, I gradually built up my fitness.
I also threw myself into fund-raising, giving me much-needed purpose.
Sadly, in June 2016 my beloved mum Helen passed away, aged 61, after a long illness.
I was devastated – but it made me more determined to complete the trek.
That August, I met my fellow trekkers at Heathrow Airport and bonded with a woman called Kate Lewers, now 31, over our love of chocolate.
When the leader asked us to choose a tent buddy, our eyes immediately met and that was that.
The next four days were tough as our celeb team leaders, Chloe Madeley and Vicky Pattison, led us on 10-hour treks, crossing rivers, vertical drops and climbing volcanoes, but morale was sky-high.
We all bonded quickly, and were open with each other about what we’d been through and how breast cancer had affected our lives.
When we completed the trek, there were many tears. I was so proud of what we’d achieved, and despite aching from head to toe, we celebrated into the night.
A few weeks later, I opened Fabulous to see our experience in print. It felt amazing.
However, just two months later I was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer, which was treatable but incurable. I was devastated.
A full-body scan revealed the cancer had spread to my spine, pelvis and humerus bone in my shoulder, but thankfully not to my organs.
I was relieved, but also heartbroken, as the diagnosis meant we had to give up on our dream of having children.
As I required a shoulder replacement, I’d have to stop working as a hairdresser, too – I felt like my identity and life choices had been taken away from me.
In November 2016, Kate came to stay. We had a lovely afternoon tea, but then I collapsed at home after feeling ill.
Kate insisted on coming to the hospital and stayed with me for the next 24 hours. I knew then that we’d be friends for life.
I also realised that completing the trek without knowing I had secondary cancer meant I was strong and capable of anything.
I decided to make a Life is for Living list of everything I dreamed of doing, and I want to tick off as many things as possible in the time I have left.
Thankfully, my medication is currently stopping the cancer from spreading further, and I keep myself busy volunteering, modelling, creating content and sharing my story to support others.
Kate and I see each other when we can – without the trek, we’d never have met and have the special friendship I cherish today.
Every day now is a gift and I’m determined to live life to the full while I can.”
- Follow Laura @baldbooblessandbeautiful.
Fabulous made me the woman I am today
Christine Taylor
Christine Taylor, 57, is a karate instructor and lives in Bolton, Greater Manchester, with her husband Ian, 52, an electrician.
“After I came round from emergency surgery, a nurse gently explained that in order to save my life, surgeons had removed my colon and fitted me with a colostomy bag.
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Lifting my gown, I saw a clear plastic bag stuck to my stomach – through it, part of my bowel was visible.
Learning the bag was permanent, I broke down in tears. As far as I was concerned, my life as I knew it was over.
It all started in December 2008, when I began suffering from exhaustion and excruciating tummy pains.
Tests revealed I had Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Four months later, I was having treatment in hospital when my bowel became toxic and ruptured – it felt like my insides were ripping in two. I had to have life-saving surgery.
Back then, nobody talked openly about bowel conditions or illnesses, let alone having a colostomy bag.
When my mum Catherine, now 89, visited me in hospital, I asked her if you could see the bag through my clothes.
“Turn around then,” she said. I burst out laughing as I realised she thought the bag was attached to my bum!
Back home, I felt low and terribly self-conscious.
Before, I’d always been proud of my toned, size-8 body, wearing figure-hugging clothes, and I enjoyed keeping fit by teaching karate, but now I refused to let my husband Ian see me naked, and hid my body in loose, baggy outfits.
It took months for me to be able to look at myself in the mirror again, and longer for me to allow Ian to see me without my clothes on.
In June 2016, Fabulous contacted me asking if I’d like to feature in a bikini shoot to inspire others to feel confident in their bodies.
I agreed immediately, knowing I had to do something to show others with a colostomy bag that it’s nothing to be ashamed of.
When the magazine came out the following month, I thought if I can stand around in front of strangers in a bikini, and be in a national publication for all to see, I can achieve anything.
But my poor father-in-law Brian nearly choked on his corn flakes when he saw me staring back at him in a bikini.
That day, I popped into Tesco, and one of the cashiers, who knew me, said: “Oh my god, I’ve seen you in the magazine – you’re so brave!”
Afterwards, people from all over the world contacted me to tell me I was an inspiration.
Many also had a colostomy bag, and they thanked me for making them no longer feel ashamed of theirs, or their condition.
Colostomy UK also shared my story and I was so grateful, wanting to reach as many people as possible.
A few months later, an old friend contacted me after being diagnosed with bladder cancer.
She’d been advised to have her bladder removed and a colostomy bag fitted.
She was terrified, so I showed her mine and reassured her it was nothing to be afraid of and would in fact enhance her life, as she wouldn’t be in pain any more.
It felt so good to reassure her, knowing there had been nobody to talk to when I first had mine.
In the six years since appearing in Fabulous, my life has completely changed and I’ve been given so many opportunities.
I’ve appeared in other publications, volunteered at Stoma Aid – a charity that helps patients living with a stoma in developing countries – and have helped countless others with bowel illness and related conditions to feel proud of who they are.
I’m determined to keep raising awareness and will continue to share the photo of me in my bikini, because Fabulous made me the woman I am today.”