Walking Tall: A Petite Model Takes to the Runway for Fashion Week

By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA
October 6th 2023

RICHMOND – Elisabeth “Elly” Nehnevaj models for Donahue Models and Talent, and on Sept. 30, she walked the runway in the finale of Rhode Island Fashion Week. That might not seem noteworthy, until you learn what she has gone through to get there.

Nahnevaj was born with a rare blood disease called Fanconi Anemia. When she was nine, she received a stem cell transplant, and in 2017, a kidney transplant.

“I was born with a few medical complications,” Nehnevaj said. “I was born without thumbs, and the doctors were able to create new thumbs for me. I was also born with both of my kidneys on one side of my body, so one of my kidneys was actually crushing the other one; it was actually sitting on top, so that had to get taken out pretty quickly after birth, so I was left with one kidney that was working at about 40%, basically at birth.

There was also hearing loss.

“I was also born with hearing loss,” Nehnevaj said. “I can hear pretty well on my left side, but I do have a cochlear implant on my right side.”

Nehnevaj received the cochlear implant last year and her hearing is now very close to normal – 90%.

“You never truly understand how loud the world is until you experience hearing loss,” she said. “It was quite a shock, honestly. Everything was so loud and I wasn’t used to that, and it took me a little bit to get used to it, but of course, it’s all good and fine now.”

But there were more health hurdles. After Nehnevaj received a kidney, donated by her mother in 2017, her body began to reject it. Nehnevaj and her husband, Joe, were living in Chicago at the time, but in 2020, they moved to Rhode Island and settled in Richmond.

“I had my second kidney transplant here at the Rhode Island Hospital,” she said. “Everything was good, everything was going great, and now, unfortunately, I’m back on dialysis, and I am awaiting a new donor for a third kidney transplant.”

Nehnevaj attributes the rejections of her transplanted kidneys to her strong immune system.

“It’s like a double-edged sword,” she said. “You’re healthy on one end but then, your body doesn’t want to receive anything new on the other end. It’s kinda tough. We’re trying to figure out what kind of new anti-rejection medications I’ll eventually be on with the new kidney, because, this is kind of it. Third time’s the charm.”

A More Inclusive Fashion Industry

Nehnevaj recently got into modeling, at a time when the fashion industry had begun to welcome diversity.

“It’s more inclusive,” she said. “There’s plus size models now. There’s petite models. There’s models who have scars and they’re proud of showing that, and that’s where I feel that I could really make my mark and fit in.”

Nehnevaj said she hoped to set a different kind of example for girls thinking of becoming models.

“Most young girls, they look up to models and they look up to all these beautiful people and they say ‘I want to be like them when I grow up,’ but for me, growing up, it was ‘oh, I want to be like them when I grow up, but it’s probably never going to happen because I’m too short.’ I’m only 4 [feet] 9. I’m very petite and I’ve got scars. I’ve got things that most models don’t have, but I do have something most models don’t have, and that’s strength. It’s resilience. It’s a new perspective on life. And it’s not just about being beautiful on the outside. It’s also about being beautiful on the inside, and that’s the message I want to try to convey to people who want to get into modeling. You can do it, even if you do have these kinds of challenges.”

After a month of practice - walking on the runway with other new models, Nehnevaj made her runway debut.

“My first experience walking for Rhode Island Fashion Week was nothing short of amazing!” she said after the show. “I still can’t believe it happened and I hope many more opportunities will come my way.”

Being in a live fashion show is something Nehnevaj said she never thought she would be able to do.

“You could have told me a year ago that I would be in a fashion show, and I would have laughed in your face,” she said. “My family was always so encouraging of me. …I turned 30 this year and I just really said to myself, ‘now or never.’ What’s truly going to make me happy? Is it going to be a 9 to 5 job? Is it going to be a desk job? What’s truly going to make me happy? And that’s really what it came down to.”