Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, at least that’s what we are often told. What is beautiful to one person may be revolting to another, and sometimes this can cause problems.
One girl who understands the difficulties faced by the traditional view of beauty is Melissa Blake. As a disabled individual, she knew that she had a difficult road ahead of her, but she still dreamed of being a model.
The problem was, she was told when she was a teenager and that she could never be a model because of her disability. When you tell somebody that they are unable to do anything, they may just do everything.
In fact, Melissa proved herself to such an extent that she became a model for New York Fashion Week. Her unique look gave her perspective.
Melissa Blake was born in 1981 and she has a condition known as Freeman-Sheldon syndrome. It is a type of genetic disorder that affects the bones and muscles, and she has had to go through 26 surgeries as a result of it. Through it all, her parents taught her to be an independent person and they didn’t want her disability to define her.
Melissa was once asked to define herself in just a couple of sentences. She said: “I’m a freelance writer covering relationships, disabilities, and pop culture. I’m also a disability activist and lover of a good pun.” Her writing has allowed her to work for various magazines, including Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and the New York Times.
She said: “My mom and sister are my favorite people in the world, and our 2 cats are the best cats in the world. There’s nothing better than spending the day with my family; that’s when I’m the happiest and most content.”
When you put yourself out on the Internet, you are going to have people who love you and people who hate you. There have been many trolls who criticized Melissa’s appearance, but she was able to endure and now, she has been made a model.
She would post pictures of herself on her Twitter page and trolls told her she should be banned from doing it because she was ugly. Not one to be deterred, she would fire back an answer in a fierce and classy way, and simply post more selfies.
Her trolls were brutal, but now she has won the war. Thanks to her viral tweets, she made it onto the stage of New York Fashion Week. One of her fans is Mindy Scheier, the CEO and founder of Runway from Dreams. Mindy asked her to be a part of the fashion event in 2020.
As a part of the Runway for Dreams project, Melissa modeled and covered more than 25 brands. These included Target, Tommy Hilfiger, and others. She was also able to do so from home, as did the other disabled people who made it into the show.
It’s amazing what you can do when you put your mind into it and Melissa is a good example for all of us.
