Photo credit: Tilly Nelson

Katie MacMillan founded Kello Inclusive, a talent agency, on a simple premise: that the beauty of disabilities, diversities and differences deserves to be represented fairly and fully. 

MacMillan watched her daughter, who has Cerebral Palsy, navigate the modeling industry. 

This experience showed her how the industry didn’t really know how to properly advocate for her daughter’s disability and needed to do more to support disabled and visibly different talent. 

The Edmonton-based agency now represents over 120 disabled and visibly different talent from across the country. 

In just two short years, Kello talent have modeled for international brands like Lego, Toyota, Walmart, Walgreens, lululemon and Lancôme, participated in Vancouver Fashion Week, Toronto Kids Fashion Week, and Paris Fashion Week, and have appeared in CBC’s docu-series PUSH. 

Last year, Kello won the startup pitch competition at Inventures, an innovation and venture capital conference in Calgary. 

ATB caught up with MacMillan at the conference this year, where she was speaking on a panel about inclusivity and innovation in the workplace.

Q: How has Kello Inclusive helped your daughter, now 14, see representation of herself?

A: If there's ever a time in your life where you're trying to figure out where you fit in the world, 14 is it. Having her be surrounded by and seeing all of the amazing disabled people that we work with has changed the view for herself about where she fits in this world. 

Q: Kello inclusive talks a lot about being authentically inclusive. What does that mean to you?

A: It's subtle. It's nuanced. But I think I would summarize by saying it's the difference between box ticking and making it feel real. Another way to put that would be, you know, understanding that when you're working with people with disabilities, it's important to understand that they are human first before their disability, even though their disability is a huge part of their existence and who they are, it's not the sole focus.

Q: Do you have any advice for an entrepreneur or small business just starting out?

A: I’d say just keep moving forward and embrace the imposter syndrome. It may never wear off, but understand that it's part of the process. Stick with it. In time, you’ll end up looking back thinking, wow, I've accomplished a lot.

Q: Who do you bank with?

A: We bank with ATB. We walked into a branch in Edmonton two years ago and have never left. It was immediately apparent that our goals were really aligned with what they set out to do at ATB. And I've been super, super fortunate to have them on our team ever since.