Photo by Brittney Janae

In the HBO Max series, The Sex Lives of College Girls, Jocelyn is a quick-witted, tell-it-like-it-is, sex-positive, wheelchair-using freshman at Essex College. When Lauren “Lolo” Spencer auditioned for the role, she knew it was hers. “This is me,” she recalls thinking. “I get to talk shit. I have a fake ID business. Hell yeah! This is exactly up my alley.”

Not only did Spencer book the part, but her portrayal of Jocelyn won her widespread acclaim and brightened the spotlight on her efforts to advance disability representation. “Lolo has such a contagious joy about her and is so damn funny,” says Justin Noble, who created The Sex Lives of College Girls with Mindy Kaling. “I think she makes all of us want to live down the hall from Jocelyn. “

Representation is important to Spencer, and she’s building a successful career as a disability lifestyle influencer, model, actor and content creator. “I think it’s important to share what it’s like for me, especially as a black woman with a disability. To show the world, ‘Oh. This is what it looks like.’ So they aren’t intimidated the next time they see someone else that looks like me or moves around like me. That’s my goal.”

Early Years

As a teenager growing up in Stockton, California, Spencer started having muscle weakness and was diagnosed with ALS. After using leg braces to get around during high school, her introduction to using a wheelchair came on her senior class graduation night at Disneyland. “My friends and I had so much fun,” says Spencer. “They were hopping on the back of the wheelchair. I’m doing doughnuts in the middle of the park.” The experience changed her perception of using a wheelchair. “‘This is helping me. This is creating freedom,’ I thought. Nobody is trippin’ off it. So, I don’t need to trip off it.”

When Spencer was 19, she moved to Los Angeles. “My mom was incredibly concerned because it was hours away from her,” says Spencer. “I told her if what the doctors say is true about my health, at least let me go to LA and experience life as much as I can, while I can, independently. And if for any reason my health would decline, I’d move back to Stockton.” That was 16 years ago.

Spencer went to California State University, Northridge, and got a degree in TV Production with an emphasis in video editing. “My dream was to be the biggest editor in the world — an Oscar winner,” she says. After graduating, Spencer did freelance editing work and later found a full-time job in the marketing department of a film distribution company.

Spencer had been with the company a couple of years when her boss threatened to fire her. “I realized then that I don’t want to be in a position where someone else has control over my livelihood. I had to do something where I can employ myself,” she says. The experience sparked the idea for her YouTube Channel, Sitting Pretty. “People are always fascinated by me — so I thought, I can share my experiences, what I’ve gone through, what I’m going through, what my daily life looks like,” says Spencer.

Sitting Pretty

Spencer uploaded her first YouTube video in 2015 – a vlog of a trip she took to South Beach, Miami, with her cousins. The video shows her rolling over the sand in a beach wheelchair and enjoying late-night dinners and dance club adventures. “A lot of people may assume that our lives as women with disabilities are super depressing, or that we can’t do shit … that we don’t live our lives. I’m here to prove that wrong,” Spencer says in the video.

Since then, Spencer has uploaded over 130 videos and gained almost 15,000 subscribers. Her Instagram account has over 57,000 followers. She shares fashion advice, dating app tips and accessibility annoyances, and she interviews disability leaders, like Judy Heumann. Spencer also chronicles her quest to find out if she really has ALS or was misdiagnosed. After a series of tests, her doctors are unable to give her a clear answer. “I now like to say I’m undiagnosed or have muscular dystrophy — as an overall umbrella,” says Spencer.

Stephanie Thomas, a fashion stylist for people with disabilities and the founder of Cur8able, a fashion consultancy, was casting a photoshoot and came across Spencer’s videos. “There is something really special about Lolo. There is a light about her,” says Thomas. “She is so authentic.” Thomas hired Spencer for the shoot and later recommended to Spencer that she get an agent.

Give Me Liberty

A few months after finding an agency, Spencer got an audition for the independent film Give Me Liberty. The role was for Tracy Holmes — an outspoken, charismatic social worker who uses a wheelchair.

Written by Kirill Mikhanovsky and Alice Austen, Give Me Liberty is inspired by Mikhanovsky’s real-life adventures as a Russian immigrant driving a medical transport vehicle in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. “Lolo was the first person we talked to, and we were just blown away,” says Austen. “She just has this extraordinary energy — she’s so dynamic and strong.”

Because of casting delays and financing setbacks, it took two years to make the film. During that time, Spencer and Mikhanovsky, who directed the film, worked together over Skype. “Because I studied TV production in college, that was one of the things I had learned — screenwriting and character development — so I was already really familiar with the process.”

Spencer says she never planned to be in front of the camera, even though her family has a history of showmanship. “I come from a very big family, a very musical family,” she says. “So, there was always a lot of music, a lot of going to see my grandfather perform because he was a saxophonist. He was a badass performer — he was incredible.”

Give Me Liberty was filmed in Milwaukee in less than a month. “The fact that it was Lolo’s first film is crazy because it was an insanely difficult shoot,” says Austen. The van, where most of the action takes place, broke down multiple times, and it was cold. The costumer covered Spencer in hand warmers and ThermaCare heat packs to keep her warm. “It was wonderful to witness a group of people do whatever it took to get this film made,” says Spencer. “Everyone wore multiple hats. I was like, ‘Lauren, you got to push yourself.’”

Give Me Liberty premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and Cannes Film Festival in 2019. Spencer received rave reviews. RogerEbert.com wrote that Spencer “proves to be an excellent, scene-stealing straight-woman against the chaos of the other riders on the van.” NPR film critic Justin Chang said that Tracy is “played with tough-talking charisma” by Spencer, “who all but pops off the screen.”

Spencer was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Film Independent Spirit Awards, and Hollywood Reporter’s film critics selected her for their 25 Best Performances of the Year. “She is so naturally gifted, and she works really hard, and she just nails it. Take after take after take. She’s incredible,” says Austen.

Modeling & Fashion

Spencer has modeled for brands like Tommy Hilfiger, Zappos Adaptive and Lady Footlocker. “Fashion is an extension of who I am, my personality and how I feel about myself,” says Spencer. Spencer credits her friend and stylist Stephanie Thomas, for helping her develop this outlook. “She really helped me learn how to dress myself and how to shop for myself. Fashion is another statement piece to the world to say, ‘Yo, we’re out here! We can be fly and sexy too.’ I also want to encourage other people with disabilities to not feel forced to wear only loungewear because it seems to be the easier thing to put on. We can find other ways to make garments work for us.”

Photo by Brittney Janae

“I can pull the looks, but you bring them to life!” says Stephanie Thomas about styling Spencer.

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The Sex Lives of College Girls

From the get-go, Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble wanted to have a character with a disability in their series The Sex Lives of College Girls. “We want the characters on this show to feel like a realistic depiction of students on college campuses in 2022 — and there are lots of college students who use wheelchairs,” says Noble.

Spencer’s audition made casting “Jocelyn” a no-brainer for Kaling and Noble. “We saw how incredible Lolo was and promptly called off our search,” says Noble. “We knew she was Jocelyn and we had to have her!”

Spencer steals the show in the second episode when Jocelyn and her friends go to a naked party. Jocelyn is the first to take off her clothes, saying, “Fuck it! I’m going in!” While at the party, Jocelyn gives her friends advice on how to sneak peeks of people’s junk without getting caught. She refers to it as the “microglance.”

“The representation is so important,” says Spencer’s friend, fellow disabled actor and model Tatiana Lee. “It’s rare that you see disabled women of color of TV, and the fact that her character isn’t based around her disability and is breaking the traditional norms of what disability representation is, is just huge.”

Spencer is currently filming the second season of The Sex Lives of College Girls and is excited to be back on set. “Everyone liked Jocelyn. Everyone liked what I did. Now that I’m comfortable, I’m like OK. Let me see if I can bring Jocelyn up a notch,” she says.

“Jocelyn isn’t just a fan-favorite — she’s also a writer-favorite,” says Noble. “We absolutely love the real-talk, tell-it-like-it-is friend that she is to the other girls in our cast, and Jocelyn will continue serving up lots of fun and blunt honesty to them. And maybe we’ll catch some glimpses at her sex life, because if there’s one thing we know: Jocelyn pulls.”

Elsewhere, Mikhanovsky and Austen are currently developing a series inspired by Give Me Liberty. “We have every intention of having Lolo reprise her role,” says Austin. “Disability in the cast will be a centerpiece of the show.”

Spencer has made lots of progress toward her goal of never again being in a position where others control her livelihood, but she is not content to rest on her laurels. Her dream role as an actor is to star opposite Michael B. Jordan in a romantic comedy. As a content producer, she wants to grow Sitting Pretty Productions so it can produce and put funding behind disability centered stories. She has even written her first book, a short e-book called “The Solo System,” which details her eight principles to master if you want to live a life of positivity with a disability. “Oh, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” she says with a laugh. “I have so much more in this brain that I’m working on.”

Find Spencer on Instagram at @itslololove and on her website, lolospencer.com.