Celebrity Profile – Aimee Mullins
Born: 1976
Profession: Model, actress and athlete
Significant Work: Set Paralympic records in 1996 for the long jump and 100 metre dash, catwalk model for Alexander McQueen, featured in Dazed magazine’s Fashion Able edition and appeared in Cremaster 3 and The World Trade Centre.
Disability: Double-Amputee
Aimee Mullins was born without fibula bones in her legs, which resulted in both her legs being removed from below the knee. However, Aimee has not let this stop her fromm achieving anything she wants.
Recently Aimee was included in People magazine’s ‘50 Most Beautiful People in the World’ issue. Aimee was flattered and believes that‘Beauty is when people radiate that they like themselves.’
Aimee has refused to become a poster child for people with disabilities as she feels that ‘it’s not about ‘us’ and ‘them.’ We’re all one of us, we’re all part of the human collective…With people like Ray Charles or Stevie Wonder, the first thing you think about is ‘musician,’ not ‘disabled.’ Our situations are tantamount to anyone’s…everyone’s got their cross to bear. I’m no different. By refusing this status, the paradigm has been shifted and I’m seen as powerful and strong, not as “what a shame.”’
Aimee continues to say that, ‘I see my prosthetics as fantastical, as the things that liberate me and give me wings instead of being a ball and chain. I never would have been able to walk the runway or run a race if I didn’t have them.’
Information taken from chickspeak.com
and wikipedia.org
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