How Lyric Mariah Heard Made The World Her Runway
“That’s not giving model,” Heard says, as she talks about her first shoot. “It was for a breast cancer awareness campaign in 2015. But looking back at those photos now, I’m just like – no, that’s not giving model.” Looking at her today, makeup on point, dressed in business chic, it’s hard to believe that Heard could ever not look like she’s jumped straight out of a magazine.
A 28-year-old model from Chicago, Lyric Mariah Heard has called London home for the past three years. With a following of 578K on Instagram and 322k on TikTok, she is a force on social media and real life, as is only too evident when we catch up at The Lanesborough in London to talk about fashion weeks, Thanksgiving plans (she has a turkey to roast) and life in high fashion. Heard was recently awarded “5th Most Impactful Influencer” of Milan Fashion Week, and it’s easy to see what makes her social media presence so powerful. Other than the obvious (she’s stylish and effortlessly cool), she’s also funny, relatable and blatantly honest.
“I didn’t grow up with the most uplifting peers so I didn’t feel like I could be a model back then,” she says. Heard has Amniotic Band Syndrome (ABS) as a result of which she was born without some of her fingers and without her right leg, and wears a prosthetic leg that’s about as famous as her face (“People recognise me as when I’m carrying my leg around – I don’t know if it’s me or the leg”).
Beginnings: College, confidence and a camera
She started pursuing modelling in college, a time when she says her confidence just took a different turn. “It was more of it finding me than me finding it. In college, I remember thinking to myself, either this can be exactly like high school and I can be embarrassed and cover my hand, or, nobody knows me here – so let’s just go for it.” And go for it she did.
It doesn’t hit me all the time, but when it does it hits hard.
She started posting regularly during COVID – “I hardly had any money. I managed to buy a camera and tripod and learnt how to shoot and edit myself so I was constantly doing photoshoots.” Heard started going viral on TikTok and Instagram after posting videos of herself walking around town and pausing to change her prosthetic leg.
Her social media attracted the attention of Rihanna‘s Savage x Fenty show and she was scouted online to walk in the show – a dream come true for the model. “I remember I was talking to the producer and Rihanna just walked between us – cool was an understatement,” she says.
Journalist Kim Kelly saw one of Heard’s pictures from the shoot and tweeted, “Obviously representation only goes so far, but when your disability is on the rare side and you’re used to never seeing anyone else who looks like you, stuff like this feels really nice. Thanks for hiring models with limb differences.” As of now, the tweet has generated 83k likes and 8,787 reposts, but when it started going viral, Heard wasn’t sure what was happening. “I’m not even on Twitter. But it was just one of those moments – you know it doesn’t hit me all the time, but when it does it hits hard.”
The front row
Heard has wrapped up a busy fashion season this year, and she’s done the rounds in London, New York, Milan and Paris. “I had an absolute ball and it was also such a blessing to go and experience these shows. Just being able to sit front row at some of them [she was at Nina Ricci, Boss and Alberta Ferretti’s shows to name a few] was amazing.” And while the world of high fashion may be one that’s easy to get swept up in, for Heard, it brought her right back to the beginning. “Being there reminded me that is where I always wanted to be. It’s so intense when you get to a place where you’re sitting somewhere and you realise you almost forget that this is where you asked to be – I felt like a giddy kid again.”
Being there reminded me that is where I always wanted to be.
Heard found herself at Alberta Ferretti’s final show where she got to meet the designer (“an absolute dream”). “Especially now knowing that it was her last show (and my first at Milan Fashion Week), made it so much more special.” Heard doesn’t hold back when it comes to praising Ferretti.
“You could feel the respect that everybody had in the room for her, and when you meet her it makes sense. It’s easy to understand why everyone has that feeling in here because she’s so sweet, so kind – and she also makes beautiful garments.” Something about Heard saying that feels ironic because she has the same presence about her. She commands respect when she walks into a room, (not just because she’s in business chic), but because when she starts to speak, you want to sit down and listen, Maybe take notes, (even if you’re not interviewing her), because Lyric Mariah has a lot to say – and all of it is worth writing down.
Getting real on social media
Heard’s social media posts often have quite a busy comment section, and a question she gets quite a lot is – why are you doing this? “This is my reality,” she responds. “I really do walk around with her [her prosthetic leg]. People are so far off with understanding that this is the reality of my life. This isn’t an attention grab – this is my life whether I’m recording it or not. I think it’s important to show people that there isn’t only one kind of reality that should be allowed to be visible. I don’t think my real life should automatically be called attention seeking or be required to be done behind closed doors like I’m making people uncomfortable.”
This isn’t an attention grab – this is my life whether I’m recording it or not.
She’s had people telling her that changing her leg in public can scare children, to which she just has to say – “I’ve literally had babies handing me my prosthetic”.
But Heard doesn’t have any resentment towards this side of Instagram and TikTok, she attributes it to a lack of education. “I think people underestimate their own ignorance when it comes to these things. I don’t even think people are trying to be nasty, it’s just a lack of knowledge – and I have that, and I’m going to share it with you.”
On the other side of the internet, Heard has brought together people who finally feel seen, including parents who until they found her page have been terrified about what their child would go through, and how to raise a child with limb differences. But as much as she’s managed to inspire and reassure people it’s also a form of validation for her. “So many of these people are validating what I felt when I was a kid. Hearing parents saying that they don’t know what to do validates that it made sense my mom didn’t know how to do it either. I’m glad I can help other people but they are also helping me.” And it’s not even about big life-changing moments for Heard. It’s the little changes she inspires that count. “People say I’ve inspired them to take more pictures, or just try on a pair of heels – it’s not just limited to people with a limb difference, it’s anyone who has felt like they should not be able to do certain things based on the limitations other people put on them – that’s my whole purpose. I’m not just standing for people with a limb difference, I stand for people who feel that life has put limits on them that they did not ask for.
I’m not just standing for people with a limb difference, I stand for people who feel that life has put limits on them that they did not ask for.
#Confidence
A hashtag you’ll see on most of Heard’s TikTok videos is this – #confidence. But it’s not the kind of confidence that’s meant to be imitated. Heard is her own brand of confidence – and she’s inspiring her followers to find their own. “Confidence in no way shape or form is something that everybody shares as a collective. It looks different on everyone.
You need confidence like your own, because what it does for me – it’s not going to do for you.
Heard recounts a time recently when she went to a Louis Vuitton store to buy a pair of heels she had always wanted. “I was so nervous that they wouldn’t fit – and then I tried them on and they snapped.” The heels have now been sent back to Italy to be repaired for free, but Heard couldn’t help but feel discouraged by the incident. “I think in these scenarios it’s important to watch the verbiage you use. You’re saying that “this isn’t normal”, but I’m probably not your most typical client. So let’s watch the way we use words like “normal” and “shouldn’t”. I agree it should not happen but it’s not prosthetic-friendly…”
Closing the gap in fashion
So is the fashion industry getting more inclusive? “Yes and no,” Heard says. “Companies in their offices need to be just as diverse as they are displaying their models to be. It’s like flesh and bone – things start from the inside and manifest on the outside. If your inside is inclusive then of course your outside will be too.” When Heard grew up no one was wearing a prosthetic with high heels, especially at this height. But now that it’s been done, Heard is hoping kids won’t be told they can’t wear heels to prom or graduation, because why shouldn’t they? “Let’s close the gap of excuses when it comes to limb differences or amputations,” Heard says.
Inclusivity is a word that companies and brands like to associate themselves with, and Heard believes that there is inclusivity for a multitude of individuals. “But I do feel like amputees and limb different people are the most left out unless they have a really cool-looking arm or leg or an amazing back story. We all don’t have to be some kind of gimmick.”
Let’s close the gap of excuses when it comes to limb differences or amputations.
Our conversation steers to this year’s return of the hotly anticipated Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. We both agree that it missed some big moments (“Where was the bombshell hair? Where was the audience interaction?) But also, where were the limb different people on the runway? Lyrics asks. “I saw them on the campaigns last year, how did none of them make the runway? It’s a little unfortunate because you think you get so far then you realise you have so much further to go.”
Heard might be asking some difficult questions, but she’s radiantly positive about the future of fashion, and her place in it. Plus, she’s never alone in it – she’s got Tina and Bertha with her. “Bertha is a little mad cause she got left behind at the restaurant earlier,” she says, indicating towards the prosthetic leg leaning against the sofa.
“They’re different girls,” Heard explains. “Tina (the heeled prosthetic leg) is giving sophisticated, afternoon tea.” While Bertha is the hustler (“she’s giving New York minute.”)And then there’s the Lyric leg – “This poor thing, she doesn’t get any credit. When both the legs are off she’s on full duty cause I’m hopping around the house – just me and her.”
Whether she’s feeling more Tina or Bertha, Lyric’s sense of fashion is seriously on point.
Whether she’s feeling more Tina or Bertha, Lyric’s sense of fashion is seriously on point. The East London girl loves the city’s sense of fashion, and the way each part of London has a different aesthetic. (She wouldn’t be caught in her Zone 1 outfit in East London). But as for her personal style, it’s 90s-inspired – “I dress like my mom did in her 20s.”
Heard has a busy few days ahead of her when we meet because she’s cooking her first proper Thanksgiving dinner for her friends and she’s got a turkey to pop in the oven. (Her Instagram stories from the next day tell me that dinner went well). And while a lot of what’s next is under wraps, I’m happy to be told that we can expect to see a lot of Lyric in London, and beyond. There’s plenty of work to be done, she’s here for it. “There’s a lot to be excited about. A lot of changes to make, and by darn it, we are going to make those changes happen.”
