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" Let me make this clear: my impairment is such that without a wheelchair, I can't do very much for myself. I can't get out of bed. I can't get myself to the toilet. I certainly can't get myself to work. "

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" I grew up in a very small country town in Victoria. I had a very normal, low-key kind of upbringing. I went to school, I hung out with my friends, I fought with my younger sisters. It was all very normal. "

Stella Young

Friends

School

Small

" In Australia, a deaf person attending an interview must take their own interpreter at their own expense, or ask the employer to provide one. Believe me, nothing says 'I'm the best person for this job' quite like asking an employer to pay to interview you. "

Stella Young

Believe

You

" For lots of us, disabled people are not our teachers or our doctors or our manicurists. We're not real people. We are there to inspire. "

" For me, disability is a physical experience, but it's also a cultural experience and a social experience, and for me, the word 'crip' is the one that best encapsulated all of that. "

Stella Young

Best

Disability

" The purpose of our justice system is to reflect the values of our society and to punish those who violate our standards. "

" In my own home, where I've been able to create an environment that works for me, I'm hardly disabled at all. I still have an impairment, and there are obviously some very restrictive things about that, but the impact of disability is less. "

Stella Young

Disability

Own

" Too often, we fall into the trap of thinking 'equal' means 'the same' and that we achieve equality by treating everyone identically. "

" I am repeatedly asked in interviews exactly 'what's wrong' with me, and I always give them the same answer; I don't identify the name of my condition in an interview unless it's relevant to the context of the story. "

" The thing about living with any disability is that you adapt; you do what works for you. "

" From pink water bottles for breast cancer to dumping a bucket of ice water on your head for neuromuscular conditions, it seems we're bombarded by requests to be 'aware' of one thing or another. "

" Doctors are not fortune tellers, and neither am I. Having lived with disability since birth does not afford me immunity from illness. "

" The magnitude of discrimination and stigma faced by people with disability in Australia cannot be underestimated. People do not understand disability, and people fear what they don't understand. "

" Apologies are great, but they don't really change anything. You know what does? Action. "

" In many ways, I'm incredibly lucky to have been born with my impairment and that it's visible. It means my path has been predictable. "

" For me, and for many other people with disabilities, our status as disabled people is one of which we are fiercely proud. "

Stella Young

Disabilities

Proud

" I, like many women, buy into patriarchal standards of beauty every day. I very rarely leave the house without make-up. I dye my hair. I wear clothes that I choose carefully for how they make me look to the outside world. "

" By far, the most disabling thing in my life is the physical environment. It dictates what I can and can't do every day. "

" Even those among us who are lucky enough to love our jobs would have to admit that at least part of the reason we work is to earn money. In between all this work, we like to eat out at restaurants, go on trips, buy nice things, not to mention pay rent and meet the cost of living. "

" When patronised, I'm unfortunately more flight than fight. Perhaps it's because I actually feel quite wounded. "

Stella Young

Because

Than

" I've lost count of the number of times that I've been approached by strangers wanting to tell me that they think I'm brave or inspirational, and this was long before my work had any kind of public profile. "

Stella Young

Brave

Inspirational

" As disabled people, we are taught from a young age that those who are attracted to us are to be regarded with suspicion. "

Stella Young

People

Who

" It is a truth universally acknowledged that from puberty onwards, the female body is disgusting and unruly and must be tamed, trimmed and tinted to within an inch of its life before it can be allowed to roam freely in the public eye. "

" I use the term 'disabled people' quite deliberately, because I subscribe to what's called the social model of disability, which tells us that we are more disabled by the society that we live in than by our bodies and our diagnoses. "

Stella Young

Live

People

" We think we know what it's all about; we think that disability is a really simple thing, and we don't expect to see disabled people in our daily lives. "

" Death is not treatment, even if it's medically facilitated. "

" It is nothing short of baffling to me how a city like Melbourne, where I struggle to find accessible facilities on a very regular basis, could be considered the most livable city in the world. I suppose it all depends on what makes a city 'livable' for you. "

Stella Young

You

City

" Disability simulation fails to capture the nuance and complexity of living in a disabled body. And it certainly fails to give a deep understanding of systemic discrimination and abuse faced by disabled people. "

" I quickly learned that asking if an interview space was wheelchair accessible was a bad idea; it gave a potential employer an immediate bad impression. It was either a black mark against my name, or a straight up discussion of why I wouldn't be able to work there because they had no wheelchair access. "

" Self esteem and a healthy body image for people with disabilities are so often hard-fought. "

" I do sometimes painful things to my body in an effort to conform to culturally imposed beauty ideals. "