The school year is coming up, and everyone knows what that means: college brochure makers prepare their diversity brochures. This year, most college brochure manufacturers are locked in a tense battle over one prize: a disabled, indigenous, queer model.
Azure Mills was born on the Port Madison Indian Reservation outside Seattle and belongs to the Suquamish People. Mills identifies as non-binary and use a cane due to a spinal cord injury at birth. In their free time, they model, run a cat café, and publish retro-futuristic zines about indigenous culture. In the past three months – as soon as their Instagram account went viral – they’ve received non-stop queries from colleges across the U.S. to model for admissions brochures.
“Yeah, it’s been kinda sus,” Azure told us. “Stanford sent me a fruit basket with salmonberries from my zip code. Columbia dropped a yellow envelop full of cash and a ‘I <3 NY’ tee. And Harvard sent me a comedy writer with a sign around his neck saying ‘do as you please with me’, which was weird. I made him write a bunch of land acknowledgments.”
We spoke to Margaret Chan, an admissions representative for Dartmouth, on Mill’s appeal to the university market. “Mills is an accomplished, talented, and artistic individual. Any brochure would be lucky to have her – I mean, them. And who cares if she’s indigenous, visibly disabled, has a great smile, and can hold a biology textbook at the perfect angle? Why does it matter that they check off a lot of our diversity boxes that we need to make our admissions quota?”
Little do these universities know, Mills has already made their decision. “I think ima use all the perks these Ivy leagues sent me and study abroad. Maybe pour it back into my community – or start a band – Who knows?”
You can now catch Mills singing and playing lead guitar for their band, The Brochures, at Madison Square Garden next month.