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A review by smalltownbookmom
The Pretty One: On Life, Pop Culture, Disability, and Other Reasons to Fall in Love With Me by Keah Brown
4.0
This was such a great collection of essays by Keah Brown, a young Black woman with cerebral palsy and the creator of the hashtag #disabledandcute - who shares her experiences growing up as a person of color and a disability. This book is full of important insights about learning to love yourself and overcoming the many obstacles of life in a very ablest society!
As a fellow person with a disability, one that often allows me to "pass," I related to many of her experiences. I also really appreciated the uniqueness of her experiences and it was nice to read a disability memoir by someone other than a white man in a wheelchair. We need more books like this one that illustrate the broad spectrum of disabilities and experiences!
I loved how vulnerable Keah gets in her book, opening up about how much she yearns to find romantic love and how challenging that is for a person with a disability. She also goes into depth about her own struggle to love her own body, in a world that doesn't represent her in mainstream media and doesn't value disabled bodies.
Highly recommended and enjoyable, told with wit and humor and sprinkled with lots of pop culture references. This book would be perfect for fans of Amanda Leduc's Disfigured or Lindy West's Shrill. Great on audio read by the author too!
Favorite quotes:
"Pity is not a thing I need, even now. I give pity so much power to control my daily life. The lesson it took me the longest to learn is that as a disabled person, what I need in place of pity, which does absolutely nothing to advance the community, are my rights, respect and opportunity....Together we can change the attitudes about and surrounding disability, as long as we remember that pity helps no one, while empathy, love and a willingness to fight, help everyone."
"I know now that people with disabilities can be and are loved and I have to remember that when I feel myself giving up or getting down on myself."
"There is also the fear that I am disappointing my community of people with disabilities by admitting that I don't know how to dismiss the internalized ableism of believing that an able bodied body is better than my disabled body. If only because it is desirable to a wider range of people and doesn't tire as quickly as mine. Why are people not more open to the possibility of dating someone with a disability? I ask, but do not know."
As a fellow person with a disability, one that often allows me to "pass," I related to many of her experiences. I also really appreciated the uniqueness of her experiences and it was nice to read a disability memoir by someone other than a white man in a wheelchair. We need more books like this one that illustrate the broad spectrum of disabilities and experiences!
I loved how vulnerable Keah gets in her book, opening up about how much she yearns to find romantic love and how challenging that is for a person with a disability. She also goes into depth about her own struggle to love her own body, in a world that doesn't represent her in mainstream media and doesn't value disabled bodies.
Highly recommended and enjoyable, told with wit and humor and sprinkled with lots of pop culture references. This book would be perfect for fans of Amanda Leduc's Disfigured or Lindy West's Shrill. Great on audio read by the author too!
Favorite quotes:
"Pity is not a thing I need, even now. I give pity so much power to control my daily life. The lesson it took me the longest to learn is that as a disabled person, what I need in place of pity, which does absolutely nothing to advance the community, are my rights, respect and opportunity....Together we can change the attitudes about and surrounding disability, as long as we remember that pity helps no one, while empathy, love and a willingness to fight, help everyone."
"I know now that people with disabilities can be and are loved and I have to remember that when I feel myself giving up or getting down on myself."
"There is also the fear that I am disappointing my community of people with disabilities by admitting that I don't know how to dismiss the internalized ableism of believing that an able bodied body is better than my disabled body. If only because it is desirable to a wider range of people and doesn't tire as quickly as mine. Why are people not more open to the possibility of dating someone with a disability? I ask, but do not know."