Keah Brown: A Journey to #DisabledAndCute: On Representation, Self Love, Self Care, and What’s Next

  1. This is a livetweet from Affect Conf 2017, Day 1.
  2. For more information about this talk and others, check out my full Day 1 writeup on Medium.
  3. Talk #5: Keah Brown (@Keah_Maria) - "A Journey to #DisabledAndCute: On Representation, Self Love, Self Care, and What's Next" #affectconf
  4. @Keah_Maria We are getting the best pics of Keah and her family. Seems like they were very supportive :)
  5. Visibility and representation were a big problem. Was loved by her family but none of it felt like it mattered when she didn't see herself.
  6. @Keah_Maria Brandy in Cinderella & Audra McDonald in Annie reflected her black skin in fully realized and well-rounded characters, but not her body.
  7. She took a lot of her low self-esteem and feelings of alienation out on her family, especially her twin sister.
  8. In college, though, she met women who made her feel good enough just as she was and finally start to like herself ❤️
  9. Meeting women like this helped her see things as less of a competition, as she saw it before. Led her to fix relationship with her sister :)
  10. Sister: I love you and know you're going to find your way and can't wait to be in your corner.
  11. She realized to fix her relationship with her sister, she had to fix her relationship with herself.
  12. Telling her story as a black, disabled woman had a real impact and she found herself being published in major publications!
  13. One day, something shifted. She looked in the mirror and said hey, you're kinda cute! And it stuck ☺️ Soon after, #DisabledAndCute was born!
  14. This celebration of how ding-danged cute we are went viral!
  15. So why does #DisabledAndCute matter? Because we spend so much time trying not to draw attention to ourselves and our disabilities.
  16. It's permission to love yourself and appreciate the parts of you you're told not to.
  17. When Keah has a bad day, she can look back on her creation and appreciate herself and what she's done for others.
  18. Her advice: find something that reflects your beauty and worth and come back to it when you feel down.
  19. "Celebrate yourself GOD DAMN IT You are the shit . you are the fucking shit" @Keah_Maria #affectconf
  20. My work is always free, so yr financial support is extremely valuable! 💵 Tips:  http://paypal.me/dmurring  💳 Patreon:  http://patreon.com/dmurring 

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