Brooke is joined by Abbie, who shares her journey as a disabled woman with cerebral palsy in the film and TV industry. She discusses her experiences growing up with hemiplegia, a type of cerebral palsy affecting one side of her body, and talks about the challenges she faced in school, the lack of support from medical professionals, and her journey towards self-acceptance and confidence.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Abbie has developed resilience and stubbornness over time, allowing her to speak out and advocate for herself and others in the face of ignorance and ableism.
• There is great value in finding a community of people with similar lived experiences.
• Abbie has learned to be unapologetic about her disability and not hide parts of herself, leading to increased confidence and self-acceptance.
• Use your platform for advocacy and allyship. This is how we encourage everyone to use their voices for positive change.

BEST MOMENTS

"I have cerebral palsy. The two default responses I get are 'What's that?' or 'Oh, my mum's cousin's mate has that and you don't look the same as them.'" 

"I think little me would be proud of bigger me now for all the stuff I've done and the fact that I'm not hiding anymore." 

"I think something that has really helped me, particularly in the last couple of years, is finding my community as well, like finding other people with lived experience who are a similar age to me." 

VALUABLE RESOURCES

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/disabled-and-proud/id1621152878

HOST BIO

Disabled and Proud is the show that brings listeners a different perspective on disability. Each week this podcast highlights an awesome disabled guest speaking about their own disability; why they are proud to be disabled and why they are proud to be themselves. 

The conversations in this show will look at what challenges these amazing people face socially, mentally, physically and life in general. This show is raw, open, honest, funny, welcoming and educational. 

Disabled & Proud does exactly what it says on the tin! And whilst we are creating this space for disabled people to be unashamedly themselves, without the need to conform to society, this is also not about toxic positivity. This show will be shining a big, bright light on disability without it being “Paralympic or pity”. 

As you will hear disability is WHOLE, COMPLETE & PERFECT and whilst the topic of disability can be quite heavy - and we definitely don't shy away from the bad days - this podcast is also about having fun too! Our aim is to play a part in reclaiming the word disability - turning it from inadequacy to perfection!