Hello people of the interwebs!

My name is Layla. I have cerebral palsy and I have many philosophies on life, but chief among them is that if you cannot laugh at yourself, you’re doing something wrong. I will be writing blogs about living with a disability in a world that was not made for me (even though it’s 2016). I have blogged before, for Disability Today Network, but I figured it was time that I start my own as well. I will be either linking to or rewriting my DTN blogs here. I have a dry, droll, often politically incorrect sense of humour. My topics will try to address everything with a measure of wit, but I cannot promise humour every time. What I can promise is brutal honesty, and an opinion that you might not always expect. I want to shed light on the realities of living with a disability and bring the right kind of attention to the unique struggles I and others like me face all the time. I’m no one’s inspiration porn… if that’s what you think I’m going to be writing, prepare to be woefully disappointed.

Topics I have talked about before: Eddie Redmayne’s Oscar win for portraying Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything”, dating/sexuality and disability, inspiration porn, extreme weather and why -if you’re disabled- it REALLY sucks, disability-free top ten lists, top ten things about having a disability that no one realizes, the dangers of being too politically correct and several other things that are escaping me right now, but you get the idea.

I’m also an English Lit and philosophy nerd with a Bachelor’s Degree in Education. I have an unabashed obsession with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and almost anything Joss Whedon has touched, I’m stupidly excited about the Gilmore Girls revival (Team Jess FTW), I’m a sucker for male folky singers with beards and guitars and I vote for the Brontes over Austen any day.  

I welcome any comments or questions that might spring up from my posts. I’m notoriously hard to offend but if you somehow manage to, I’ll be sure to tell you. If, once you get a feel for what I’m doing, there are topics you’d like me to address, I welcome that too. Read, share, link and join the discussion. As it is, it’s a discussion that is not had widely enough -I want to appeal to others with disabilities but the able-bodied majority as well, because without that, we have no hope to affect change by ourselves. I’m aiming to present a perspective that might not otherwise occur to you; if I present a topic or a stance that makes you think, or question, good.

Look for my first real blog soon! 🙂

-Layla