Stella Young

“For me, in some ways, my whole life is a bit performative and always has been - because I'm stared at and looked at everywhere I go.”

“Most disability charity hinges on that notion - that you need to send your money in quick before all these poor, pitiful people die. Peddling pity brings in the bucks, yo.”

“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.”

“In days gone by, short-statured people were not only labelled as ugly, stupid and freakish, they were often owned by aristocrats and treated, at best, as entertainment and, at worst, as pets.”

“People with disabilities are simply part of diverse communities in the U.S.”

“We often hear that people mean well: that so many just don't how to interact with people with disabilities. They're unsure of the 'right' reaction, so they default to condescension that makes them feel better in the face of their discomfort.”

“I once choked on a chip at a friend's birthday when I was seven and had to be sent home, as I'd broken my collarbone coughing.”

“We all learn how to use the bodies we're born with, or learn to use them in an adjusted state, whether those bodies are considered disabled or not.”

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

“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.”

“I really love filling out forms - quite fortuitous, really, given that as one of Australia's 4 million-ish disabled people, ticking boxes and recording my life for other people is what I've spent a fair chunk of my time doing.”

“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.”

“It became very clear to me that Yooralla was not as interested in media coverage that explored issues faced by people with disability as it was in giving a pat on the back to journalists who maintained the status quo by giving readers the warm and fuzzies over their morning paper.”

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

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

“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.”

“Disability is often framed, in medical terms, as the ultimate disaster and certainly as a deficit.”

“I have a condition that is included among the 200 or so classified as Dwarfism.”

“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.”

“The Paralympics have for too long been considered the poor cousin of the Olympics. It's always run after the main games and rarely gets anything like the media coverage.”