Representation Matters
Recently, I convinced my wife to read Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows book. It’s one of my favorites, and even though my wife doesn’t read much anymore, I knew she would love it.
She did.
She especially loved the character Kaz. My wife is 24 and walks with a cane, and has to put up with constant looks and invasive questions from strangers who think it’s their business to know why someone so young is using a mobility aid. Seeing a totally badass character who uses a cane meant a lot to her. When I told her that Leigh herself uses a cane, she was even more excited.
Yesterday, my wife got the opportunity to meet Leigh at Chicago’s BookCon. She came and found me after getting her book signed and was just beaming. Leigh had greeted her in the autographing line by pointing out that she was a fellow cane user, and after chatting a bit, wrote the words “Be dangerous” in my wife’s book.
Those words mean so much to my wife, because it’s easy to feel weak when society constantly shames people (especially young people) for using mobility aids. Thanks to Leigh an her writing, my wife knows she can be disabled and dangerous.
Shout out to @lbardugo for being awesome.
Thank you for sharing this. I can’t tell you how much it means to me.
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I agree with the above comment this is so inspiring and wonderful. As a person who has had leg problems since childhood I can relate. The stares and worse people who think they can judge are horrible. Especially since there is so much more to say about a person then what they cannot do.So @lbardugo is right, you can be dangerous and should be no matter what your problems. If we all waited for the perfect people to do interesting stuff nothing would ever get done.
Keep writing and inspiring, Leigh. You are amazing.