How Actress and Model Jillian Mercado Is Breaking Boundaries For Disabled Latinas

Today, she still works with Nicola Formichetti and considers him a good friend. Prior to that shoot, Mercado had her own fashion blog and was working as the editorial director, of We The Urban magazine, but was largely a behind-the-scenes persona. However, she was able to book more modeling gigs almost immediately after the Diesel campaign came out.

Not long after the Diesel campaign, Mercado signed with IMG Models, and has gone on to appear in various magazines and has been hired for several print campaigns for huge retailers like Target, Nordstrom, and Olay. She’s currently represented by CAA Worldwide, which is one of the largest talent agencies in the entire world.

Though much of her modeling work had been for print campaigns up until this point, in 2020, Mercado made her runway debut at New York Fashion Week. She appeared in The Blonds’ Fall 2020 runway show, marking the first time many of us had ever seen someone in a wheelchair modeling on a high-profile runway.

“Knowing that somewhere, someplace there’s a younger me freaking the hell out that she sees herself on the runway [is mindblowing],” she told Teen Vogue.

In 2019, Showtime premiered a sequel series to the show, “The L Word,” titled, “The L Word: Generation Q,” and Mercado who had not previously done any acting, was cast as Maribel, a queer, Latinx immigration attorney.

“I didn’t think that acting would be for me because I just didn’t see any representation of people like me in film or TV. And if there was representation, it was of the saddest, most depressing story around death. So I thought there was no place for someone like myself in the entertainment world,” she told SELF.

Mercado’s depiction of members of the disabled community in the series has been absolutely groundbreaking in that it shows multiple aspects of the character’s life and personality, that are not centred on her disability, including her sex life.

“I think it will give people a reeducation of what a person with a disability looks like. It’s “The L Word”, so there’s a lot of romance, and there’s a lot of love. Unfortunately a lot of people have this notion that people with disabilities don’t have relationships, that we don’t fall in love, and that we’re not sexually active. I was able to play around with that aspect of the human experience,” she explained to SELF.

For many members of the disabled community, Mercado’s career is something they’ve been waiting to see their whole lives. “Once I kind of faced the reality of the lack of representation and inclusion there was of the disability community…that really kind of turned my whole world upside down,” she told Advocate. “Because it wasn’t about me chasing my dreams anymore and being in the fashion industry or entertainment industry. It was like my existence is a political statement…I have such an opportunity right now to really make real change within the industry.”