A woman's "cute" selfies have started a social media movement for body positivity and disability.
Keah Brown, a 25-year-old journalist and disability advocate who has cerebral palsy, tweeted some pictures of herself last week.
"I want to shoutout my Disabled [sic] brothers, sisters, & non-binary folks!" Brown tweeted, encouraging her followers to join in and "share [their] favourite pictures, too".
I want to shoutout my Disabled brothers, sisters, & non-binary folks! W/ #DisabledAndCute pic.twitter.com/Qcx5mvc1UI
— Keah Brown (@Keah_Maria) February 12, 2017
And, boy, did they join in.
Using the hashtag "#disabledandcute" Twitter users with disabilities have shared their sassiest pictures with the Internet, as well as their frustrations with society's perceptions of disability.
#disabledandcute hell yeah I am pic.twitter.com/WPOZGXecer
— Corinne Duyvis (@corinneduyvis) February 12, 2017
#DisabledandCute is an actual hashtag yasss I love it. I only use my chair part-time but always make sure I look sassy in it. pic.twitter.com/UMJ9NMC2bN
— Poppy Akinola (@PoppyAkinola) February 13, 2017
#DisabledandCute Shoutout to all my ♿️ sisters out here pic.twitter.com/TXsEJHk6U6
— Unruly ♿️ (@Eliza_Heidi) February 12, 2017
when u have cerebral palsy but u still a bad b* #DisabledandCute đź’“ pic.twitter.com/bePukSiIpt
— camille (@MzzStereoLove) February 14, 2017
Openly saying that you're disabled and you like your body is radical so we have to do it until it's not. #disabledandcute pic.twitter.com/39YJe90oK1
— karolyn⚔️gehrig (@karolynprg) February 12, 2017
"There is a common misconception that disabled people are not attractive," Brown told Cosmopolitan, after the hashtag went viral. "We are often seen as undesirable and broken."
Keah Brown is a well-known disability advocate in online circles. Her witty personal essays have been published in Lena Dunham's Lenny Letter and on ESPN.
In an interview with Amy Poehler's Smart Girls last year, Brown expressed her frustration with portrayals of disability in Hollywood.
"There's this tendency to showcase all these disabilities as a white guy in a wheelchair," she said. "That's not anywhere near what all disability is, there's not enough representation of people of colour with disabilities period. And then when they do cast [for these parts] these actors often aren't disabled."
Fairfax Media