-
Push Girls Episode 4 review: Hope Its Not Too Late
In this episode, Angela tries to teach herself to pain again and dols out some killer advice to the ladies. Meanwhile, Auti is stressing out about not being able to *stay* pregnant and visit’s a fertility doctor and Tiphany and her girlfriend Miyoko see some rough seas. SPOILERS AHEAD **** This episode had A LOT going on. Let’s start out with Angela, the quad of the group. She decides after 10 years to try to paint again. Watching her struggle holding a brush with quad hands was fascinating. It is not easy learning how to still use paralyzed fingers. Been there. But why did she wait 10 years? Auti, the…
-
Push Girls Episode 3 review: You Don’t Get It
In the third episode of Push Girls, Mia’s backstory with her mother is highlighted, and Angela throws an epic 10 year anniversary party celebrating her “new life.” SPOILERS AHEAD **** As this episode begins, Mia shows what may be possibly the most dangerous type of wheelchair-to-car transfer ever, and that is a busy LA Street. I don’t know how Mia, or any other bad ass paraplegics in any busy city do this type of transfer. I love that the show is showing the extra dangers people in wheelchairs face in their everyday lives (and how even more important, people need to pay more attention to the road and look out for…
-
Wheelchairs and tent camping can co-exist | SPINALpedia
Tofu burgers on the campfire; my very first and very weird camping memory (hey, I can’t help it if my best friend’s parents who took us camping growing up were old hippies that also went to Woodstock). Camping is in my blood and the videos below prove that you can still camp even if you can’t walk. Sure…it requires extra planning – you need to find a campground that has accessible sites, accessible trails AND accessible bathrooms – but if you ask me? Totally still worth it. Before heading out, you’ll need an accessible tent. And yup, they really can be accessible (you just need to think about your specific…
-
SCI Superstar: Teal Sherer
Teal Sherer (yup like the color), whose an actress and paraplegic, has come a long way from the log house she grew up in in rural Tennessee. After breaking her back while riding in a car to Labor Day fireworks show when she was just 14, she found a new passion post-injury – acting – hasn’t looked back since. After college, Teal decided to make the big move out to LA to pursue her dreams of acting. Her first break came in 2004, when she was cast in HBO’s Warm Springs (a film about the life of FDR starring Kenneth Branagh. She played a young woman with Polio. Loved this…
-
Wheelchair-users: What do you do when someone uses your chair as a footrest?
A disgruntled woman wrote me the other day about one of the biggest pet peeves I think most people have when living the wheelchair life. People who have no qualms about using our wheelchairs as an end to a means for something they need to get accomplished. Have no idea what I’m talking about? Let me explain. The woman who wrote me told me that last week, while waiting for the elevator with a coworker, this coworker suddenly propped his foot up on her wheelchair and tied his shoe. I don’t know about you, but if you use a wheelchair, this is about equal to someone putting their foot on…
-
Wheelchair fashion tips: In your face, and a ladylike runway show
If Bjork can be deemed fashionable, if we can make kitchen appliances fashionable, why can’t we be rolling thrones of haute couture too? Srsly… If you watch the above video by Tiffany Giddes, a T10 paraplegic and member of The Ability 411 crew (a collaboration of five paralyzed vloggers who answer questions about life with paralysis), she shares all the best fashion tips she’s discovered since her injury. They are awesome. Tiffany is one tough chick so you know her fashion tips will be good. Her ability to be turn a project into a reality is crazy. Take her new movie Collision about a female wheelchair assassin—she stars in it…
-
Just say no to wall-scuff guilt
Wheelchairs and scuff marks. When they happen they always make you feel like the bad guy, especially when you’re visiting someone. Great, now they’ll really remember me. But I’m so happy now. Now, instead of silently worrying how I can make amends with the homeowner as I silently sit there feeling guilty as I sip my wine, I can now whip out my Magic Eraser tool, this crazy awesome wall scuff-remover tool (from the company that makes the Mr. Clean products). All you do is get it wet, then scrub the scuff a few times and it‘s gone (but not if you damaged the drywall). When I came home from…
-
Push Girls Episode 2 review: Watch Me
After a great intro on the four girls in Episode 1, the show gets deep and dirty. SPOILERS AHEAD **** “Once a dancer, always a dancer,” Auti says in the second episode of the series, after revealing her tragic injury story (on the night of her injury, she sold herself for $500 to a male friend to pay rent). And Mia shares she might be too strong. “Sometimes I don’t think I have any tears left to cry.” Gotta love Angela’s meditation sounds. Maybe it helps her deal with her paralysis? And in a scene at Tiphany and Angela’s house (they’re roommates), Tiphany transfers out of her chair onto a…
-
Why I Run My Site
I received a beautiful letter validating the very reason why I’ve been running this site, Beauty Ability, since 2003. It came from the mother of a 17 year old girl who recently found my site. Having “up there” confidence and thinking you’re beautiful is never easy when you’re a teenager, let alone when you’re in a wheelchair. Hi Tiffiny, I found you through my daughter Leanne. Leanne has Spina Bifida and uses a chair. We live in the country and she is the only person here that uses a chair. She has gone through all of her life with no true peers and now that she is 17 and watching the world go…
-
Push Girls: Reality TV Finally Finds Us
I wrote more about what “Push Girls” means to me for Easystand. Check it out: Push Girls premiered last Monday, the new reality show on the Sundance channel profiling four “hot babes” in wheelchairs. As a babe in a wheelchair myself (hey I’ve been called that), this show is the televised messiah I’ve been waiting for. The show’s premise – showing the world that you can still be beautiful, have a full life, a great job, have men that want you, and still drive a fabulous car (has been my personal goal since my injury). You have no idea how frustrating it is for people to be shocked when you can achieve any of…
