Celebrity Profile – Debbie van der Putten

Born: 1985

Significant Work: Contestant on Britain’s Missing Top Model, a Playboy shoot and she participated in Miss Ability 2007

Disability: Arm Amputee

Debbie grew up in a Helmond, a small city in the Netherlands that is more like a village where everyone knows everybody else. She loves break dancing, however after a car crash she had to give it up.

At the age of nineteen, Debbie was involved in a car crash which resulted in the lower part of her right arm being amputated. However, she has never let this stand in her way. She has modelled for various disability groups, charities and awareness campaigns. In 2007 she competed in Miss Ability, a Dutch televised beauty contest for people with visible disabilities, and she has also posed nude for Playboy.

In an interview with TIME magazine she said: “I wanted to show the Netherlands that you can be beautiful, sexy and disabled. After my accident I hated mirrors. But now I love them.”