How Using Social Media Helps Me Cope With My Disability
I have been a frequent user of social media since the age of 10. Over the past decade, I realize that social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat have been a huge coping mechanism for me throughout my journey with cerebral palsy. Social media has also helped me learn how to accept the fact that I was born with a condition that made me stand out and be different from the rest of society.
Before I started to share my journey with the world via social media platforms, I felt like I was constantly out of place in a world that I struggled to find my place in. I joined social media and started to document my journey as a young 18-year-old at a time when I started to finally feel comfortable within my skin. I built the confidence within myself to finally say, “I’m Tylia – this is my story. Take it or leave it.”
Connecting with others like me via social media gave me the strength and the inspiration to continue to move forward, despite my struggles. It helped me to get through life with a condition that no one fully understands unless they have it.
I am extremely grateful for social media platforms and what they could do for the society we all live in today, and how we see and interact with the world.
Social media has made me realize that someone out there needs to hear your story. You can tell and share your story in a way that could help others overcome bad chapters in their lives. You can actually help them understand that it’s just one bad chapter in their book and it truly isn’t the end of the world.
If you think about it — every day that you go on social media and you update a status or upload a picture or post an event on your timeline, you are leaving a fingerprint on the world – your impact.
That’s why I choose to use social media as a positive tool to educate, advocate and inspire others every day with my stories. I tell my stories through the statuses that I post, empowering others through my journey with cerebral palsy, and showing people how I live my life with a condition that isn’t understood by many people.
Social media is the way I show the world that cerebral palsy isn’t a bad thing and there is a positive side to my diagnosis. My life struggles, being a woman with a disability, and the ability to connect with others like me has allowed me to feel empowered and inspired to keep on going.
Photo credit: diego_cervo/Getty Images
Tylia L. Flores is a twenty-eight-year-old born with Spastic Cerebral Palsy. Despite her condition that affects her mobility, she does not allow it to affect her will and determination to make a difference in the world. Through her many life challenges and obstacles, she discovered her passion for writing. Tylia’s goal in life is to share her stories with the world. In doing so, she hopes to help others with disabilities realize that they, too, have the potential to make their dreams come true. Tylia is not only an author. She’s a radio show personality and a disability activist. Tylia has written about disability-related topics for Yahoo Life, Your Tango, The Mighty, ReadUnwritten.com, Words Between Coasts Project, Wednesday, Spilwords, and Goble Thrive. Worth Living Among her other appearances are Disability on the Spectrum and Why I was Afraid of Sexuality. Previously, Tylia was nominated to Diversabilities list of the most influential Disability Impacts of 2022. Additionally, Tylia holds the position of chairman in the creative director role for the North American Association Of Cerebral Palsy Advocates. She serves as a mentor for the Disability EmpowHer Network as well. Tylia also works for Write It Up Publishing as a sensitivity reader focusing on disability representation. Tylia has also been involved in many movie press releases for Samuel Goldwyn Films Come as you are Piece of me which was the short film directed and written by award winning filmmaker Bruna Cabral as well as the film adaptation of the book Calvin can’t fly by Jenifer Burnes Tylia is also a keynote speaker at 2020’s Cerebral Palsy Awareness conference. She has also been a guest speaker at Northeastern State University Broken Arrow where she talks to college students about disability and inclusion in education. She has also been a guest speaker at Plantation Middle School, where she discussed inclusion and disability with classmates. Tylia is fully certified in Education for All: Disability, Diversity, and Inclusion through Cape Town University. She’s also certified in Understanding Diversity and Inclusion through Purdue University. She’s also certified in creative writing at the University of East Anglia. Tylia hosts the Stomping On cerebral Palsy radio show with DJ Ty on Asheville FM with DJ Mouse during the Come On In the Kitchen segment once a month she also helps the staff behind the scenes, help bring awareness to disability awareness and inclusion within the radio broadcasting industry .
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