A Journey to #DisabledAndCute: On Representation, a Movement, and What's Next

Keah Brown at Affect Conf 2017

Transcript

1. #DISABLEDANDCUTE On representation, a movement, and what’s next
2. Baby Keah! ◦ I was a super cute kid right? ◦ CP squad since ‘91 ◦ This picture was taken in my grandmother’s house where I spent many of my best childhood years with cousins, a twin sister, an older brother, and a loving mother, uncles, aunts, and grandma ◦ I don’t know why I was wearing the hat but just go with it ◦ One of a few pictures where I wasn’t crying
3. LEAH AND ERIC ☺ ◦ Leah is my twin sister ◦ Eric is my older brother by four years
4. Momma Brown! ◦ This is my mother Cheryl ◦ I get my sense of humor from her ◦ She raised me the same way that she raised my able-bodied siblings whatever they got I got ◦ I love her so much!
5. I didn’t see myself! On TV In Film In life I was loved by my sister and brother I was loved by my mother But none of it felt like it mattered
6. Who did I see growing up? ◦ Brandy in Rodger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella was one of the first times that I saw a black woman desired and living the princess fairytale This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND
7. Who else did I see growing up? ◦ Grace Farrell played by the legendary Audra McDonald ◦ She was the personal secretary to Oliver Warbucks, she was beautiful, loved, and could sing! I can’t sing but that was important to me ◦ Though I love these women I only saw my skin reflected back at me ◦ I never saw my Cerebral Palsy In anything but exploitive telethons
8. The Struggle With Self- Esteem ◦ Growing up, the only body like mine I ever saw was reflected back at me through a mirror and I didn’t like what I saw ◦ I wanted desperately to be “normal” ◦ I wanted to be cute and desirable and that felt impossible in this body ◦ As the only person in my immediate family, (Mom, Brother, Sister) with a physical disability I always felt like the broken one, the one who didn’t belong
9. I hate her and I hate me too ◦ I took my frustrations with myself and my body out on Leah ◦ Not only was I mean to Leah, but I was mean to myself ◦ I convinced myself that by tearing myself down it wouldn’t affect me in the event that other people decided to ◦ hated myself more than I hated anything else and it was exhausting but it felt necessary for my survival. ◦ I lived like this for all of my middle and high schooling years
10. Away To College I go! ◦ I spent four years at SUNY Fredonia where I graduated with a degree in journalism and a minor in creative writing ◦ The same college where I honed my love of writing and journalism and felt immensely lucky to find what I love and be able to do it! ◦ The same college where I learned about and met brilliant women!
11. Women like Chelsea and Leigh ◦ Who were and are kind, funny, smart and caring ◦ Who made me laugh loudly and without apology ◦ Women who made me feel good enough just as I am
12. Women like Felicia and Christine ◦ Who are two of my best friends to this day ◦ Who I can trust and talk to about anything! ◦ Women whose friendship I hold so dear that I stood next to Christine in Felicia’s wedding
13. And then I realized… ◦ I had all of those things in my very own sister whom I took for granted out of jealousy! ◦ I didn’t realize this until after graduation so I began to try to be better to her and repair the relationship on my part ◦ in order to do that, I had to fix how I treated myself
14. Fast Forward to 2016 ◦ I’m working on my relationship with Leah ◦ Telling my stories for the first time without shame ◦ AND TO MY COMPLETE SURPRISE I AM BEING PUBLISHED IN MAJOR PUBLICATIONS! ◦ I am starting to see my worth as a writer and a person
15. Something Shifted !!!!! On December 28th 2016 I woke up with eye boogers, stinky breath, and messy hair, looked in the mirror and said 1 “Girl, you are kinda cute!” 2 I assumed this feeling would go away as it had often throughout the years 3 HOWEVER, I made a conscious effort to be nice to myself and say something kind every single day after that day and the feeling stuck! 4
16. A Baby was born! ◦ JUST KIDDING! ◦ My baby, #DisabledAndCute was created on February 12th, 2017 when I realized that I was still being kind to myself and still in a great mood self-esteem wise ◦ I liked the Keah that I am now and I wanted people to know that This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
17. WE WENT VIRAL! ◦ On the day that I posted the hashtag, I was on deadline. I posted four of my favorite pictures of myself in my newfound confidence and encouraged everyone else to join in ◦ When I came back an hour or so later the hashtag was trending!!!
18. We Were Everywhere! ◦ By the end of that week, the hashtag and my face were featured in Cosmo, Shape, Teen Vogue, Yahoo, Mic, Allure, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed and more! ◦ We were also international! The hashtag and myself were featured in publications in Sweden, Russia, Paris, Japan, Seoul Korea and more!
19. Someone even drew a picture of us with #DisabledAndCute ◦ thank you to the artist Moosleemargh on Twitter!
20. Why #DisabledAndCute matters? ◦ I think the hashtag resonated with so many people because we all go through points in our lives when we don't feel good about ourselves for whatever reason. ◦ When we feel joy even momentarily, we brush the moment in time aside and pretend that it never happened. ◦ We do this because sadness is familiar and comfortable ◦ This hashtag and movement flips that practice on its head and says hey, celebrate the fact that you're not in a bad place anymore and celebrate yourself don't be ashamed to give yourself the room to be proud. ◦ this hashtag serves as a reminder to myself that there is something worthy about me and I'll be here to celebrate it as long as it lasts and if it fades I will go back to this moment and remember it.
21. What’s Next? ◦ I am so glad you asked! ◦ World domination! ◦ I just landed an amazing literary agent Alex Slater of Trident Media and we are working on some really cool things (I can’t disclose yet ) ◦ I’m in partnership with a pretty big company to d a pretty important thing details on that to come! ◦ I want to be in movies, write books, write TV, be on TV ◦ In fact, I have a campaign going on Twitter to #GetKeahOnEllen for #DisabledAndCute because I love Ellen and I want to thank her in person ◦ I have created T shirts with the hashtag!
22. The T-shirts! ◦ After seeing t shirts in my tag that were claiming I was in business with them I decided to make my own ◦ Pictured here are the #DisabledAndCute shirt and the I support #DisabledAndCute shirt ◦ These shirts are available in all colors and feature my twitter @ on the sleeve
23. The #GetKeahOnEllen for #DisabledAndCute video!
24. What else… ◦ I do this work because I love it ◦ I fight for the proper representation of disabled people, especially disabled people of color in mainstream media because I never had that and I think we deserve it ◦ Life isn’t a bed of roses now. I still have bad days, weeks, months, etc ◦ But now, I have a power and knowledge that I didn’t have before #DisabledAndCute ◦ The power of a woman who knows and continues to learn her own worth ◦ The knowledge of a woman who knows how to return to joy after sadness finds me once more
25. That was fun! Thank you! ◦ I just love these pictures of myself! ◦ Selfies are empowering go home and take a few ◦ You don’t have to share them with anyone just take a few and admire the beautiful person you’ll be looking back at ◦ ☺