My superhero experience continues to spread across the country and around the world. I’ve seen articles online about my invention in all kinds of different languages. I’ve even had invites to speak in other countries. All these opportunities came out of a chance to enjoy the body I have with pride. I don’t plan on Project Unicorn being the only thing I invent. I feel like I’m just getting started. Now that I’ve learned how strong I feel by solving my own design needs, I want to help other kids do the same. Thanks to my experiences, my mom and I launched a new nonprofit organization and named it after the online community we’ve grown through the years—Born Just Right. It is a site that started out as a blog my mom used to tell my story. We started meetups when I traveled and grew a community on Facebook. When my Project Unicorn work got bigger, I told my mom I wanted to try to use the awesome and positive feedback we were receiving to help our message reach as many people as possible. And Born Just Right has helped us do just that.
My hope is to use Born Just Right to help more kids use disability as a way to learn their strengths. Each one of us has different challenges and ideas. What if we all learned how to take our differences to create something exciting instead of thinking our differences are something bad? Born Just Right is teaming up with other organizations to create more design lessons for kids with disabilities. I hope we can work with companies that want to hear different views on what works with their products. If Born Just Right can help a whole bunch of kids discover their inner designer, then those kids can work with all kinds of different businesses or groups. We would be able to talk about anything! We could help car designers build different designs. Maybe we could help clothing lines add extra-stretchy clothes or designs that are comfortable in a new way. From medical tools to clothing to fun toys, I think kids like me have views that no one else has considered.
While we grow the nonprofit, my mom and I are trying to continue to talk and teach about how disabilities are not a sad thing. Disabilities are a part of everyone’s world. We are a group of people who should not be ignored. Instead of looking at disabilities as a bad thing, let’s find ways to use them to our advantage. I know having a disability changes how I see the world, and I am a better person for that view. By speaking up, I use that view to hopefully change thoughts on limb differences and disabilities. Maybe I helped change views on prosthetics. When you build an “arm,” it doesn’t have to look real. It can be anything. It can be a unicorn horn that shoots sparkles, or it can be an arm that helps you play the violin. People who don’t have a hand don’t need a “hand.” We need helpful and fun tools.
One quiet summer day in Boston, a group of kids gathered in an open conference room of a shared working space. It was the first time our nonprofit worked on a daylong design event for kids with limb differences. We had kids with upper and lower differences join us for a day of fun and creativity. I was so excited to put together a new event for kids!
I got to join the kids in brainstorming and coming up with new ideas to turn themselves into superheroes. In the meantime, my mom gathered all the parents in a separate room to talk about how they can all support kids in STEAM and design.
The kids in our group had so many fun ideas. We spent the morning brainstorming and the afternoon building out concepts. I came up with a new way to surprise people with glitter—a prosthetic arm that throws balls that explode with glitter when they land. (It’s really messy.) One girl developed LED lights for her helper legs. Another built a Wonder Woman shield for her little arm. There was a marshmallow shooter, a pool-noodle battle arm, a helpful arm table, a hands-free book holder, and a useful tool for one girl to do her metal artwork. We all presented our designs to the parents. It was awesome to see so many great ideas in such a short time.
We put together longer events for kids since then, and we’ve given our workshop a new name: BOOST by Born Just Right. Some of the workshop participants continue to work on improving their prototypes with design buddies. I am so excited to see what new ideas come next.
Along with setting up awesome events for kids, my mom and I had a chance to speak and share about Born Just Right with all kinds of really cool organizations. We’ve spoken at the national AIGA Design Conference (a professional organization for design), the South by Southwest Interactive Festival (a massive film, interactive media, and music festival), and even the United State of Women Summit. We are just getting started!