Love her or hate her, we have a lot of things to thank Oprah for – the freebie giveaway trend (you know it), crazy celebrity interviews aaaand Dr. Phil (cough). But there’s one more thing I really love Oprah for – she made straws cool.

You know how it is, whipping a straw out for the most inappropriate drink ever. You don’t want to be that weirdo, but maybe you’re like me and have no choice. With paralyzed hands, straws are the obvious answer to drinking on my own. But omg do I ever turn red whenever I have to use one in an inappropriate drink in public. Coffee, tea, wine, I’ll put a straw in it. Sexy.

And then one day I saw Oprah (in the early 2000’s) drinking her glass filled with water with a straw. What I thought to myself, highly amused. An able-bodied adult using a straw all the time as if she were a quadriplegic? I love her. I laughed. She went on to talk about how straws kept lipstick looking perfect while filming (vs. sipping the rim of a glass). She’s a straw devotee. Awesome.

Now that Oprah said straws were cool, my embarrassment started to ebb. Straws are usually the sippy things reserved for the kidlets of the world, well that and girls drinking mixed drinks. Preschools, kindergartens and bars, that’s where you’d find them, in that order. For an adult to use a straw? No, that was silly.

Maybe it’s just in my mind, but since Oprah’s straw conversion, the weird looks I used to get whenever I have a coffee straw in my glass of pinot grigio aren’t as bad. It’s kinda nice. Once less thing to make me paranoid (grin).

But I do know this though – I should have never cared about what anyone thought of me in the first place.

Did you struggle to become ok with adaptive equipment use in public?

– Read this history of straws (surprisingly interesting)

Photo courtesy of mother awesome