Stella Young, Disability Activist and Comedian, Passed Away Over the Weekend
Stella Young, a comedian, writer and disability activist from Victoria, Australia, passed away this weekend, ABC reported.
Young, who died at age 32, lived with a genetic disorder called osteogenesis imperfecta, and had been an activist for people with disabilities since she was a teenager, BBC reported. She passed away unexpectedly but painlessly on Saturday evening.
“Stella helped us understand disability issues by sharing with a raw honesty about her own life and forcing us to reconsider how we think about disability and create an environment where those with disability can best get on with their own lives,” Mark Scott, the ABC managing director who worked with Young, told ABC.
The Mighty previously covered Young’s excellent Tedx talk, in which she expresses many important ideas about disability and labels.
“Disability doesn’t make you exceptional,” Young says in the video below, “but questioning what you think you know about it does.”
Her humorous but thought-provoking approach to the issues, as well as her invaluable contributions to the disability community as a whole, will never be forgotten.
See the whole Tedx Sydney talk, called “Inspiration Porn and the Objectification of Disability,” in the video below:
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Image via Wikimedia Commons/Own work
Melissa McGlensey is the former News Editor at The Mighty. Her writing can also be seen in Ms. Magazine, on the Ms.Magazine blog and in The Huffington Post’s Good News, Comedy and Impact sections. Melissa is also a New York City comedian who does sketch, improv and stand up. She is passionate about social justice, politics, Thai food, literature, disability rights and more. She is currently in a long-distance relationship with her cat, Sneakers, who lives in California. You can follow her on twitter at @OhHeyMeliss.
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