Read This Book…

A few years ago, I came across the “Growing Up” series from Black Inc books. This series of anthologies features essays from different minority communities around Australia, including Growing Up Asian in Australia, Growing Up African in Australia, Growing Up Queer in Australia, and Growing Up Aboriginal Australia. All of these anthologies are wonderful, but today, I wanted to share my favorite.

Edited by disability rights advocate Carly Findlay, Growing Up Disabled in Australia features disabled writers from across the continent with different kinds of disabilities. The word “disability” is an umbrella term that covers so many conditions and ways of being disabled, so I loved seeing the wide range of representation. Plus, experiences differ depending on the quality of care you receive in your particular country. I really appreciated learning more about how different people with the same condition can have completely different experiences based on their circumstances.

Findlay does a great job of encouraging the writers to tell their own stories. An autistic person writes about how they attended a play about an autistic girl. They really didn’t like the play, but when they talked to the play’s creators, they realized that they were approaching autism from a different perspective. This conversation reminded them that different people with the same condition can have very different opinions. 

There are special olympians, artists, and creators of all sorts in this collection. A woman with intellectual disabilities shares how the adults around her only seemed to tell her everything she couldn’t do. But she didn’t let that stop her from pushing herself to do the things she loves, like writing her own book.

Anthologies like Growing Up Disabled in Australia remind me of how vibrant, creative, and resourceful disabled people are. So much of our lives are spent fighting for our place in the world, for our very right to exist. But given a chance, we can do incredible things.