A couple of years ago, I created this persona “Mama Càx”.  She is bold, confident & adventurous. Mama Càx represented everything I was afraid of yet everything I wanted to become. Somehow, over the past couple of months people started reaching out to me for talks and interviews and Mama Càx had a lot to say.

This journey has been partly educating others about disability issues and facilitating discussions about girl empowerment and body positivity. When I Imagined the audience I wanted to inspire, I thought of the every day young girls not being confident enough and facing additional barriers because of the color of their skin, their disability, their gender or their body shape. Until one day, a man stopped me on the train platform. He said ” I have a prosthetic leg  too and just seeing you show off yours gives me the courage to do the same.” surely I know that men face similar body insecurities as women but in a society controlled by men & that caters to men, I never thought in a million years that my message would speak volume to a middle aged male.

Photographed by Gillian Laub

Social media has been a great platform to join the body positive movement  by being transparent about my insecurities and talking about how I overcome them every day. Recently, Refinery29  a fashion, style and beauty website based in New York, reached out to me for an article interviewing and photographing 4 differently abled women in all their slayage at the beach  & pool.

“9 Stunning Photos Of Differently Abled Women Taking Back The Beach”

The article by Rebecca Adams features 4 women (including myself) talking about how we became differently abled, and some of our body insecurities and how we have and continue to overcome them. As we are getting closer to summer, many women will frantically start dieting to get their “summer body” While you’re at it, don’t forget your cat eye sunglasses, your camera,  bathing  suit and a jar of confidence-In fact you may only need that jar because confidence goes with everyone , it’s easy to carry and it goes with everything.

-Mama Cāx

Check out the other women featured & more pictures —> HERE

Photographed by Gillian Laub