Society teaches you differences are unnatural and should be hidden. I believe they should be celebrated.

‘Beauty and the Unbroken’ is a disability advocacy campaign that celebrates diversity, resilience, and strength in those living with disabilities — whether visible or invisible. Here, we believe that scars and differences are not things that should be hidden, and rather individual stories that should be admired.  

My biggest goal when I started ‘Beauty and the Unbroken’ in 2024 was to inspire others to see the beauty in the things that society tries to get us to hide and to start the shift in the perceptions/stereotypes of people with disabilities.  

The Inspiration 

The inspiration for ‘Beauty and the Unbroken’ came from the traditional Japanese repair method of kintsugi. Kintsugi is a traditional art form where lacquer with powdered gold is used to repair pottery. Instead of getting rid of or concealing the cracks, kintsugi enhances and highlights them, transforming the once ‘damaged’ part into something even more beautiful than before.  

Japan has a beautiful philosophy and worldview that embraces imperfections, impermanence, and incompleteness. They believe ‘cracks’ and ‘irregularities’ are not flaws but show authenticity that isn’t forced by perfectionism. It is something that I find so refreshing in a society that is so obsessed with fitting into a box of perfect standards that need to be met to define whether you can be successful or worthy.  

With Beauty and the Unbroken, we see people with disabilities and differences in the same way. Our scars, both visible and invisible, are not damages that need to be erased. They are marks of our survival and strength, and they are a part of our story. We shouldn’t be ashamed of them.  

Our Mission 

Originally, I just wanted to get my story out there to be representation for others like me. I didn’t get to see people like me on the TV or in the books that I read, and it was hard to feel like I could be successful. I took my scars and turned them into art for people to see, so that they could start to see the beauty in their own scars and to know that they didn’t have to be ashamed of them.  

But it’s about so much more than me. It’s about every single person out there who feels like they must hide their true self to fit into society. I want to reach out to others who want to share their own stories so we can build a community of people celebrating authenticity and being unapologetically ourselves.  

How We Achieve This 

• Kintsugi Photoshoots – A photoshoot that takes our scars and makes them our most valued feature. Collaborating with creatives to help highlight and honour those scars and help inspire participants to embrace the parts of themselves they’ve always felt the need to hide.  

• Interviews – Amplifying the voices of minorities by giving them the platform to share their stories and feel empowered doing so. 

• Community – Creating a safe space for those who have always felt ‘other’ to be themselves and for them to know that they are not alone and that they should be proud of who they are! 

What to Take Away  

As a society, we tend to look at surface-level. Beauty and the Unbroken invites you to delve deeper and beyond the stereotypes that tell you that being disabled means you’re broken, or that you don’t fit into a box that defines your worth. Look at the beauty of diversity and know that every story is worthy to be told. Never let anyone or anything hold you back from chasing your dreams. 

We are not broken. We are UNBROKEN. And it's our scars that make us who we are.