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" Shaun Ross is not lacking in the self-confidence department. &amp;quot;I always knew that I was going to be something great.&amp;quot; the model/actor told ELLE.com on a recent afternoon. And why wouldn&amp;#039;t he be? Ross has walked the runway for Givenchy and Alexander McQueen; he considers Beyonc\u00E9 &amp;quot;something like family&amp;quot;; and he&amp;#039;s starred in highly artistic music videos opposite bigwig pop stars including Katy Perry (&amp;quot;E.T.&amp;quot;) and Lana Del Rey (the recently released short film, &amp;quot;Tropico&amp;quot;). Added Ross, &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m thankful but I&amp;#039;m not surprised.&amp;quot; Fair enough. Still, the 22-year-old is the first to cop to the fact that this exact form of success\u2014namely a meteoric ascension in the notoriously fickle high-fashion universe\u2014is nothing short of miraculous. Not to mention unprecedented: Ross has albinism, a congenital disorder that results in the production of little to no pigment in the skin, hair, and eyes. He&amp;#039;s also African American. To say his look is unique among male models would be an understatement.    &amp;quot;When I tell you that modeling was not a thought to my head, it was not a thought in my head,&amp;quot; he recalled of his youth with a laugh. Ross excelled in dance, eventually spending five years with the acclaimed Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater company, thinking it would become his profession. But modeling? The idea was utterly laughable. At the time, Ross&amp;#039; perception of a model\u2014 a sought-after, flawless specimen of physical perfection \u2014 was more or less the status quo. That wasn&amp;#039;t him. &amp;quot;Models look good, models look perfect,&amp;quot; he remembered thinking. &amp;quot;Allegedly to society and to the public, [I looked] the opposite of that.&amp;quot; He was constantly told as much. As a child growing up in the Bronx, the only &amp;quot;light-skinned&amp;quot; student in his high school class of over 500, Ross was a self-admitted outcast. Despite being verbally abused and even physically assaulted in the seventh grade, he&amp;#039;s not one to dwell on being bullied. In fact, he sees it as something of a convenient, PR-friendly cop-out. &amp;quot;I feel like a lot of celebrities do anti-bullying campaigns just to fit in,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;Yes, I was bullied. But it made me who I am. So therefore, thank you.&amp;quot; (Though it should be noted, Ross has started a similarly minded Instagram campaign of his own \u2014 #inmyownskiniwin \u2014 which promotes self-acceptance). Ross&amp;#039; self-perception quickly changed. At 16, he was discovered on YouTube by a photographer who convinced him to meet with Djamee Raphael, a French agent and owner of Djamee Models. Ross and his mom drove from their home in the Bronx to Manhattan to meet with Djamee; Ross was signed an hour later. He met with his first client, P. Diddy, that Friday. &amp;quot;That&amp;#039;s when I knew, &amp;#039;Wake up. This is something crazy about to happen.&amp;#039;&amp;quot;  Others quickly began to see Ross&amp;#039;s outer beauty, something he was long blinded from accepting. In front of the camera, Ross exudes purity, charm, and natural charisma. This also applies on the runway: this past New York Fashion Week he appeared in presentations for Third NYC and Monsieur Belange. And while he&amp;#039;s not above inhabiting characters during music video shoots\u2014he raves on about playing E.T., a childhood obsession, for Katy Perry\u2014but worries he&amp;#039;s viewed as something of a sideshow by some photographers and directors. &amp;quot;I think to this day people still use me as a novelty,&amp;quot; he admitted. It takes visionaries like Beyonc\u00E9, he explained, who showcased Ross not dressed up or caked in makeup, but as himself, in her recent &amp;quot;Pretty Hurts&amp;quot; video, to break down stereotypes. &amp;quot;Even though it was a short part in the video I felt more like an actor,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;She showed me to the world as myself. She didn&amp;#039;t show me as a creature.&amp;quot; He believes the narrow-minded vision of what constitutes model-esque beauty is evolving; photographers and editors are becoming more attuned to experimental muses like him. &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;re in an era where tradition is breaking,&amp;quot; he said. To Ross, fashion and entertainment might be best off displaying the world as it looks away from the runway. &amp;quot;People with not just albinism but all sorts of different people in general exist on an everyday level. We have people in this world who are transsexual, we have people who are gay, we have people who are lesbian.&amp;quot; Despite his success, Ross is hardly taking a breather. &amp;quot;I think of myself as a drug dealer in the world of fashion,&amp;quot; he said without a hint of sarcasm. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m always hustling.&amp;quot; Photo Credit: Danny Roche; Make-up: Renee Sangamoo This article originally appeared on Elle.com. 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