Chronic pain can negatively affect a person’s mental health and lead to thoughts of suicide. Factors like stigma and being dismissed by doctors can heighten this risk, which is why speaking out about this issue is so important.
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The Mental Toll of Disability Is Inflating — We Have to Do Something
The weight of living in a world that doesn’t consider disabled people’s needs is piling on. Something has to change.
We live in a society that presumes disability is intrinsically tragic.
In reality, for me and many others, being disabled actually comes with many beautiful things, including a vibrant and loving community.
Am I Disabled Enough to Call Myself Disabled?
It took me more than a decade to call myself disabled. When the label finally stuck, the pride it injected — and the thriving community that came with it — enriched my life.
At my sickest, I embraced my identity as disabled. Since then, the chronic illnesses that disabled me have improved, and now I’m being tormented by a bizarre question: Am I still “disabled enough” to call myself “disabled”?
Goodbye Hustle Culture, Hello Anti-Ambition
Amid the era of ultimate girl bosses and side hustles, I fell out of love with my greatest love: ambition.
After becoming tantalisingly close to securing a dream job I had set a strict timer for ten years ago, I realised I did not want it. Saving for a mortgage, a well-paid 9 to 5 and a consistent income suddenly became suffocating, not liberating. Ambition, which had evolved into a defining element of my persona, no longer directed me to new heights. It had shifted towards an abyss of burnt-out desperation.
I Accessorised My Way To Embracing Disability
Finding stylish mobility aids amid a sea of dull, colourless options which match the aesthetic of a hospital ward is the bane of many fashion-forward disabled people’s wardrobes. In the UK the spending power of disabled people tops £249 billion per year yet affordable and elegant mobility aids that consider aesthetics are a rarity.
How My Personal Style Has Changed Now That I’m A Digital Nomad
This April, I boarded a one-way flight from London to Bangkok in Thailand to start my life as a full-time digital nomad. I gave up a cosy rented home in Birmingham to pursue my dream of travelling and working as a freelance journalist throughout South East Asia. In the six months since, it’s been a life-changing adventure that – among many other things – has forced me to explore and reconstruct my fashion identity.
My Style Is Not ‘For’ Men – It’s To Protect Me From Their Violence
Every day, people select an outfit that speaks to them but, in a world rife with gender-based violence, people with femme-presenting style are often forced to use fashion for expression and protection. Throughout history we have been targets of unwanted male harassment, violence and sexual assault, and the blame is often placed on us for wearing clothes – of any kind.
How Queer People Wear Colour To Celebrate, Communicate & Thrive
LGBTQIA+ people throughout history have fought battles for equality, shown solidarity with other oppressed groups and struggled for the right to live proudly. To survive in oppressively heteronormative societies, especially before homosexuality was legalised in the West, we’ve used fashion symbols to interact safely and show pride without endangering ourselves.
Love Island, disabled reality TV stars, and the ‘inspiration porn’ deluge
Love Island has announced what it says is its “most diverse” cast ever, which includes their first physically disabled contestant: Hampshire PE teacher Hugo Hammond, who has a clubbed foot.
Harriet Eccleston is the adaptive fashion designer making her mark at LFW
While fashion sometimes moves too swiftly a pace to even keep track of, the process of diversifying its catwalks is happening at a glacial pace. Yes, we are finally seeing a broader range of shapes, sizes, colours, and genders grab the spotlight they deserve, meaning it would be easy to assume that adaptive fashion was having an equally heart-warming surge. In reality, the fashion-starved disabled community continues to be be passed over again and again. However, to combat the style exclusion of 14.1 million disabled people in the UK and the one billion disabled folks worldwide, a colourfully dressed, fashion powerhouse is embarking on a mission to affect change.