laughingatmynightmare:

Dear Ellen DeGeneres,

Hi! My name is Shane Burcaw. I’m 25 years old, and I have a disease called spinal muscular atrophy that gives me the supermodel physique you see in my photo. You should see me in heels.

I’ve spent a good portion of my life correcting the misconceptions many people hold about living with a disability. As a kid, when my classmates were afraid to interact with me on the playground, I showed them that we could be the best of friends by running them over during flag football. As a teen, when I was convinced no girl could ever possibly like me, I went to homecoming with my friends and danced my heart out anyway. As a young adult, when years of being looked down upon because of my disability just became too much, I threw myself into a career of using humor to correct the damaging stigmas surrounding disability in our society.

It’s a big day for me, which is why I’m hoping you’ll read this. Today, my second book finally launched to the world after a year in the works! It’s a children’s picture book called “Not So Different,” and it answers many of the most common questions kids ask me about living with a disability in a light-hearted and entertaining way.

Last weekend, my girlfriend and I were out shopping, and a little boy stopped in his tracks when he saw me, pointed at me with wide eyes, and shouted, “Mommy, is that a baby?” His mother was mortified, but occurrences like this are all too common in my life. My goal is that my picture book will become a fun resource for parents and teachers to use with their kids, encouraging more children to grow up embracing diversity and difference!

In hopes of you seeing this, I’m asking my friends, family, and followers to share this post on a massive scale. If I can reach you by making this go viral, I would love nothing more than to send you a copy of my book. It’s the perfect length to read in a single toilet sitting.

With love,

Shane

dappermouth:

\ S A G E  //

laughingatmynightmare:

This post is for teen and young adults with SMA or similar diseases who have similar body structures to my own AND a desire to wear fashionable clothing. So now that I’ve reduced my audience to about six people, I’ll begin.

I’ve discovered a secret: girl pants.

My whole life, I’ve struggled to find comfortable, stylish clothing that actually fits me. Pants have been particularly hard to find ever since the baggy clothing of the 90s went out of style. In fact, since my teen years, I’d say one of my biggest struggles in life has been finding skinny jeans that I can wear.

I’m small, like slightly-larger-than-a-well-fed-toddler small. And my legs are basically locked into the sitting position of my chair, so when all my friends began wearing skin-tight jeans in high school, I had to sit on the sidelines and watch with envious eyes as that fad passed by. It was just too tough to find a pair of jeans that looked skinny on my stick legs but weren’t so tight that they snapped my brittle twig bones as my father yanked them on each morning.

For a while, I just settled for being uncomfortable. I had one pair of jeans that I deemed cool, and even though putting them on took four hours, and even though the waistband gave me actual bruises on my ribcage, and even though taking them off was like peeling the skin off of a highly-sensitive apple using only your fingertips, I wore them every day because they were my best option.

Then, last month, my girlfriend introduced me to a magical world called the girls section at H&M, (Never thought I’d write that sentence.), a place so bursting with soft material and stretchy fabric that my eyes grew moist with joy.

Have you heard of stretchy skinny jeans? They’re a real thing, and they are exactly what they sound like: soft, comfortable jeans that melt into my curves like warm butter but stretch like putty for easy on and off. Plus, they have a thing in this land called “High Waisted,” which solves my life-long problem of having my pants slip off my rear end when being lifted from my bed to my chair. You can’t tell from this photo, but my waistband is up above my nipples.

Best of all, they look cool, or at least I think they do, and that’s really all that matters.

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maplehoofs:

tastefullyoffensive:

(via simonlauchlan)

I don’t understand this weird new trend where we all pretend we just figured out corporate social media is an advertising tool. Like we’ve been lied to or something, and believed Denny’s started a tumblr just to hang out with us. It’s truly bizarre. And then the other half of the trend, where we just sort of yell at or try to mock the social media accounts as an anti-capitalist statement is just as weird but for a different reason… These accounts obviously aren’t run by like, the CEOs of the company. The only people seeing these ‘sick burns’ are the social media staff, who have nothing to do with all the unsavory shit we all despise about corporations. They’re probably underpaid, and their literally job is just “Hey make a funny informal ad” or “Hey interact with human beings”. It’s the online equivalent of doing this shit to cashiers at stores. Can you imagine that? Some cashier is like “Have a nice day” and someone responds “Your false corporate kindness is TRANSPARENT” and then screenshots it to brag about it later? It’s really super weird. 

(Source: tastefullyoffensive, via tyleroakley)

throes-of-redemption:

afishhook-anopeneye:

my name is cow
and wen she sits
benethe the stall
withe tiny kit

I hav no hands
withe which to pat
I use mye tung
I lik the cat

my name is cat
and with tha kit
In front of stall
we lyk to sit

I feel her tongue
I say meow
I have a fren
Her name is cow

(Source: fluffytherapy, via tastefullyoffensive)