Damn - Stella Young, RIP

[davidgillon]

I logged on this evening to find my Facebook full of fellow crips posting links to pieces by/about Australian disability rights campaigner Stella Young, had an 'Oh, shit' moment and tracked them back to an announcement she's died at 32.

Her piece on Inspiration Porn is probably the piece of disability writing/performance I link to more often than anything on the net and I can't think of a better way to tell you about her:

I'm Not Your Inspiration (TED version - there's an older text version which is the version I first saw, but which I can't currently find)

ABC piece on her with more links: Stella Young: remembering a high-profile disability activist through comedy, public speaking

And in her own words "I am not a snowflake. I am not a sweet, infantilising symbol of the fragility of life. I am a strong, fierce, flawed adult woman. I plan to remain that way in life, and in death."

Comments

[liv]

So sorry to hear she's gone. It's the worst thing, to see the name of someone you admire all over Twtiter and FB and it turns out to be because they've died.

[jesse_the_k]

Indeed, she will long be missed. She 'inspired me' to be as fierce as I want to be.

[davidgillon]

My friend Lisa Egan on knowing Stella, and how Buzzfeed couldn't have gotten their reaction more wrong. (*headdesk*)

(And if Lisa knew Stella via Ouch, where I was also active, then does that mean Stella and I interacted at some point? Damn, missed opportunities)