Stella Young
Stella Young
Stella Jane Youngwas an Australian comedian, journalist and disability rights activist...
NationalityAustralian
ProfessionComedian
Date of Birth24 February 1982
CountryAustralia
boxes chunk disabled fair filling forms given life love people quite recording spent ticking time
I really love filling out forms - quite fortuitous, really, given that as one of Australia's 4 million-ish disabled people, ticking boxes and recording my life for other people is what I've spent a fair chunk of my time doing.
combined echoes myth people sentiment suggesting
The sentiment of those suggesting the Olympics and Paralympics be combined is no doubt well intentioned. But it also echoes the myth that disabled people want to be other than what we are - that we'd like nothing more than to be 'allowed in' with the able-bodied competitors.
birthday chip choked home sent seven
I once choked on a chip at a friend's birthday when I was seven and had to be sent home, as I'd broken my collarbone coughing.
dictates life
By far, the most disabling thing in my life is the physical environment. It dictates what I can and can't do every day.
If everyone's looking at me, I might as well say something interesting.
beauty conform imposed painful
I do sometimes painful things to my body in an effort to conform to culturally imposed beauty ideals.
attracted ignoring notion relationship wanting
I let go of the notion of wanting someone to ignore the way I look in order to find me attractive, because really, what kind of relationship would that be? One where someone's only attracted to you because they're ignoring a fundamental part of you? No thanks.
create disabled environment hardly home obviously works
In my own home, where I've been able to create an environment that works for me, I'm hardly disabled at all. I still have an impairment, and there are obviously some very restrictive things about that, but the impact of disability is less.
beauty buy carefully choose clothes dye house leave outside rarely standards wear women
I, like many women, buy into patriarchal standards of beauty every day. I very rarely leave the house without make-up. I dye my hair. I wear clothes that I choose carefully for how they make me look to the outside world.
australia cannot faced fear magnitude people stigma
The magnitude of discrimination and stigma faced by people with disability in Australia cannot be underestimated. People do not understand disability, and people fear what they don't understand.
apologise disabled identify
I do not identify as a person with a disability. I'm a disabled person. And I'll be a monkey's disabled uncle if I'm going to apologise for that.
came disabled early identify ideology invent late proudly teens word
I identify very proudly as a disabled woman. I identify with the crip community. I didn't invent the word 'crip'. It's a political ideology I came to in my late teens and early 20s.
given work
I'm a full-time wheelchair user. And yet, given the right circumstances, I am able to work.
atheist heaven heard
I've been an atheist ever since I heard there was only a stairway to heaven