The Best of Disability Blogs and Banter

Modeling Disability

Loving You

Models with disabilities took to the catwalk during February’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York, thanks to FTL Moda’s “Loving You” show. Teaming up with Antonio Urzi, who has designed for the likes of Lady Gaga, FTL Moda found most of its wheelchair-using models through the United Kingdom-based firm, Models of Diversity. Watch on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=w__boKpQZj0.

Underneath Project

What does your style say about you?
I’m confident. I like attention, but not in a bad way. More like I’m here, I’m present, this is me, deal with it. That’s how I dress. People have stereotyped me

[as a disabled woman] that I can’t have style, but I don’t care.

When do you feel the most beautiful?
When I went to Venice I went for a fashion show and right out the airport is my billboard for the campaign I did and I was like, whoa, I look so beautiful there! It’s always hard to just look in the mirror and say wow, I’m so pretty today, but I think that moment triggered something.
— Fashion model Jillian Mercado, while participating in StyleLikeU’s Underneath Project, in which a piece of clothing was removed with every question answered. Watch on www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCeyQwKpmPw

Humans of New York
“I want to make life easier for people in China who have disabilities. I know what it’s like, because I lived in a Chinese orphanage until the age of 10, and I wasn’t able to go to school because I couldn’t walk. But that’s just a small part of who I am. I want to be a diplomat, and travel, and do all sorts of things that have nothing to do with being disabled. I don’t want people to pity me. I don’t want to be another ‘poor her.’ I don’t want to inspire people. ‘Inspiration’ is a word that disabled people hear a lot. And it’s a positive word to you. But to us, it’s patronizing. I’m not living a wonderful life for a disabled person. I’m living a wonderful life, period. This morning I got accepted into the London School of Economics. Now hold on, let me put on some lip gloss before you take the photo.”

Humans of New York posts photos of New York City denizens with a quote or an interesting fact about them across social media platforms. See www.humansofnewyork.com.