Page 4 - Success Story Newsletter Spring 2018

effort,” she explains.

“So every morning I had to say four things I liked about myself until I believed them. When my work started
to take off in 2016, it was great to see my career do so well and it felt awesome, but I also had learned to
see that I had worth outside of just my work.”

#DisabledAndCute – Changing Body Images

It was this exercise in self-improvement that gave her the idea to create the Twitter hashtag
#DisabledAndCute – As a celebration of self-confidence and self-love.

“I started the hashtag and posted four pictures saying, ‘Hey I’m disabled and cute, and you are too. And
if you want to join in, you can.’ I went away from my Twitter and came back an hour later and the hashtag
was trending, and by the end of the week it went viral,” she says.

“I ended up in places like Cosmo, Shape, Yahoo Beauty, Buzzfeed even did a piece on it, so it was really
cool to do something for myself and have it become a community where disabled people could feel good
about themselves and learn to love themselves and each other.”

In only a few short years, Brown has truly made a splash, and she’s nowhere near ready to slow down
anytime soon. She is currently wrapping up work on what will be her first full-length book entitled The
Pretty One – due out in 2019 – which will be a collection of personal essays.

And as she continues to make an impact in literature, journalism, and the disability advocacy community,
she wants to share a message with individuals who may identify with her.

“When you don’t see positive representations of yourself in mainstream media, because that’s what our
culture is influenced by, you have a tough time trying to navigate the world,” she says.

“I know it’s hard to get through the day a lot of times, and I know that you’re different from everybody
else. But you know what? Those differences make you beautiful. And some days that can be tough to
remember, but every day try to find something that you like about yourself. Then find another thing, and
another, and another. Go after the thing you want, and don’t think of yourself as a burden, or something to
be taken care of, or an obstacle to be moved past. Who you are and all that you are, is enough.”

You can learn more about Keah and her upcoming book The Pretty One at her website
keahnbrown.weebly.com

Want to read more stories like this? Visit eastersealsnj.org/blog

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