Debbie van der Putten

Debbie van der Putten is a Dutch model who currently also works at the travel agency Reisburo de Wit in The Netherlands on an internship as part of a tourism course at Rea College.^[2] She is particularly known for her physical disability, where she lost her right arm above the elbow following a bus crash in the south of France in 2005,^[1][3] and as a contestant on reality TV programmes such as the Dutch show Miss Ability (2007),^[4] and the BBC3 show Britain's Missing Top Model (2008).^[5]

Career

From 1998 - 2002, she studied Tourism and Catering at De Rooi Pannen, a vocational training college.^[2]

Before appearing on Britain's Missing Top Model, Debbie was the first amputee to be featured in an European edition of Playboy in 2007, when she modelled nude for the Dutch edition in an issue which broke sales records.^[6] She also posed for glamour photoshoots for a website dedicated to amputee admirers and paraphilia called Ampworld.^[6]

In 2008, she worked in tourism as a career.^[7] Since Britain's Missing Top Model she was part of Angel Sinclair's diversity campaign in London through 'Models of Diversity'.^[8][9] In January 2012, she was signed by the Ben Barry agency in Canada,^[10] an agency that has now closed. Barry's agency specialised in diverse models. Sinclair founded the 'Models for Diversity' campaign to promote models that challenge convention.^[11] Models for Diversity featured van der Putten on their first billboard campaign, held during the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London.^[1][11]

In 2014, Debbie featured in an campaign for the De Bijenkorf department store, although The Huffington Post noted that she was seen only on the app while the website showed the same dress on a different model.^[12]

In various international sources she has been cited alongside Aimee Mullins as an example of a disabled fashion model.^[13][14]

Recently Van Der Putten has returned to working in the Tourism industry in The Netherlands.

References