by Tiff -

Push Girls Episode 7 review: This Is How You Get Through

In this episode, Chelsie and the girls dish on men (sex in the chair revealed!), three of them perform hip-hop at the Abilities Expo (and overcome a move gone wrong) and Angela finally finds a casting agent who thinks she has a real shot in the modeling industry. This is my favorite episode yet (by far).

SPOILERS AHEAD ****

Episodes 7 begins with the utterly adorable (and god damn is she in good shape) Chelsie rolling up to Auti’s house for a dance practice session with Auti and Mia (for an upcoming performance at the Abilities Expo in San Jose), for their wheelchair hip-pop wheelchair dance group, Colours ‘n Motion (“Auti’s Wheelchair Dance School.” Why doesn’t this exist yet?)

I like how Chelsie admits that after injury she wasn’t interested in wheelchair dance. “I thought it looked weird.” “But then I met Auti and it all clicked.” If anyone can prove that it’s not stupid, it’s Auti.

While they’re practicing, can I just say that Mia looks overwhelmingly cute in her uber-long braided pigtails?  I don’t care if she’s 33.  She can pull them off like nobody’s business.

After practice, they nom on some store bought sushi as they discuss their big performance (this will be the first time many of Chelsie’s friends and family see her dance in her wheelchair). “It’ll be the first time, like, you know, instead of like on videos and stuff,” she says.

by Tiff -

SCI Superstar: Shannon Murray

Some might say it’s ridiculous to think you could ever become a successful model if you have a disability.

Definitely not true. Shannon Murray, a professional model and actress from the UK, didn’t subscribe to this sorry attitude after her injury (and to the delighted eyes of many).

Shannon entered the disability world after breaking her neck in a diving accident when she was just 14 (while vacationing with family).

She was injured at the C7 level, but was incredibly lucky and was able to leave the hospital a functioning T2 paraplegic (she had an incomplete injury of course).

Growing up though, Shannon was all about acting and performance art. She loved it. But after her injury (like so many of us do), she thought it would no longer be possible to seriously consider it. But not so fast.

In 1994 and only 4 years after injury, Shannon decided to give modeling a try after seeing an ad in the Sun paper for an upcoming disabled modeling search – Model in a Million. Read this entry

by Tiff -

Push Girls Episode 6 review: Fired Up

It was bound to happen, an episode that centers on the always delightfully controversial topic – stem cells. Drama ahoy (and swimming too)!

SPOILERS AHEAD ****

Episode six starts out with a nice shot of Mia driving her convertible, wearing black lace tights and a white lacy skirt. She meets Tiphany for a workout session, where they discuss the annoyances of working out so fiercely that you can’t transfer back into your car, and other such amusing foibles that only people with spinal cord injuries could get.

I think it’s great the show is having the girls explain their abilities post-injury, in relation to their specific injury location, which is (I’m sure) helping educate the masses.  Mia reveals she can still move two toes, and Tiphany can actually feel everything  (and move everything) from the mid-thighs up (lucky bitch). 

by Tiff -

Push Girls Episode 5 review: How Did We Get Here

This episode really struck a chord with me.  It shows two of the girls, Tiphany and Mia, facing one of my greatest fears – speed dating. And Angela deals with the mixed feelings she’s having towards her husband, Dustin (who she’s separated from), who comes to visit her for a few days in LA.  I hate to say it, but Angela is starting to drive me crazy.

SPOILERS AHEAD ****

Episode 5 begins with Angela getting her hair washed at the kitchen sink. Her PCA/Auntie Judy says the most offensive thing about Angela (not to her face, but still), “She’s like a baby,“ as she talks about how important she feels it is for Angela to get back together with Dustin. WTF?

Tiphany and Mia, both freshly single, decide to go speed dating. The speed dating oordinator says, “I’ve never had any women in wheelchairs before, but if they (the men) don’t like them for who they are, then they don’t want them anyway.” Mia says about her chair before going in (re: being nervous), “I’ve been in a wheelchair for so long. I don’t even notice it anymore.”

by Tiff -

SCI Superstar: Tim Strachan

“Go Stags!” is a chant Tim Strachan, 34, heard all the time as the starting quarterback for DeMatha Catholic High School (a premier boys high school in Maryland). And no wonder, at 6’3, 215 lbs, with a “spectacular arm,” Tim was a beast (and the ’beast’  Joe Paterno wanted as Penn State’s next quarterback).

Then everything changed right before his senior year. A day at Bethany Beach landed Tim with a broken C5 vertebrae. He underwent a massive 19 hour neck surgery and had to spend the next several months in rehab. That was over 18 years, and a lifetime ago.

Broken neck? Don’t take Tim down for the count. What he has been able to do since his injury, while sure it’s not the NFL record he had dreamed of, has been just as victorious.

Why he’s fearless

Right away Tim decided to use his injury as a catalyst to keep going full blast. After high school, he went on to graduate from the University of Maryland. And after receiving his undergraduate degree, he was accepted to Georgetown University Law School in 2001 and graduated from there a few years later.

After graduation, he entered the real world and got right into the swing of things right away (like a rock star). He landed a job with the FCC in their Office of Legislative Affairs and works as an attorney adviser, where it’s his job to be the liaison between the FCC and Capitol Hill (I bring donuts! Now please hear me out!) Read this entry

by Tiff -

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 42 year old paraplegic of the group, gets a lot of screen time in this episode. I love what she said about her husband Eric. “Some people are surprised to see an able-bodied man with a woman in a wheelchair, but I‘m spoiled; I like to be carried.”

And I love Auti’s dog Bats, a French Bulldog. She makes “rolling” a dog look so easy. But this episode is all about Auti and Eric trying to get pregnant. She reveals she had an abortion after her injury. “I would’ve had an 18 year old by now,” she cries.

Her mom died of cancer right after her injury and she was in a rough spot (hence the abortion). And now Auti and Eric are having a hard time getting pregnant, they’re worried (well Auti is) that she might be infertile.

by Tiff -

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 wheelchair-users when they’re driving).  This episode is really all about Mia, and focuses on her reunion with her mother after not seeing her for three years.  She comes to LA to visit her.

Parents always have a really hard time dealing with spinal cord injuries of their children, and Mia’s mom is no different.  Mia’s mother struggles with alcohol problems, and it’s been a sore spot for Mia since she was a little girl. “When I found out Mia wasn’t going to be able to walk again.  I wish she would’ve just died, because I didn’t know how she would be able to live,” admits her mother.

by Tiff -

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 movie).

She’s also been in several national commercials, including one for Liberty Mutual insurance and another that I remember from awhile ago to get people to get out and vote.

And the past couple of years, she’s developed a huge online following for the character ‘Venom’ she plays (a member of the “Axis of Anarchy”) in the web series hit, The Guild. She is mean and wears a lot of black eyeliner. Watch out. Read this entry

by Tiff -

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 bench at the kitchen table to “look normal.” “Sometimes you just need to do that.” Yeah, I can relate to that.

Auti enters a ballroom competition with an able-bodied pro ballroom dancer that she worked with in Musical Chairs. “I want people to see you dance. Not be the girl in the wheelchair. “I want people to think you’re going to dance out of your chair.” After some intense practicing where he really pushes her, she had to figure out how to keep her legs strapped in with her husband’s help and has an understandable freak-out session when her straps don‘t cooperate. Been there. Loved that they showed that.

Her hubby Eric is so great; always calm under pressure (us girls in chairs should always have a guy with that kind of temperament). And at the competition, Auti and her partner end up winning 1st place in the show dance category. They looked insane. Wc-dancing on fire I swear. Also, really loved Auti’s glam competition dress. So glad the country gets to see this chick.

And Mia gets deep about her relationship with her bf of 2 years. They are on completely different pages when it comes to kids (really glad my boyfriend and I are on the same page). They meet at her place to talk, and sad….he breaks up with her. “I am who you want, but not what you want.”

by Tiff -

Push Girls: Reality TV Finally Finds Us

Push Girls - Reality TV Series helps those with spinal cord injuriesI 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 these things. A “push girl,” so say the shows producers, keeps on pushing despite anything that comes her way. I kinda like it. Read the rest of this entry…