MandiBox Beauty

If you've been reading my blog from the very beginning, then you know that my Diverse Ability is called Arthrogryposis. When I was a teenager, I had to write a paper for school that was basically a mini-autobiography. At that time, I began researching all about this "disability." What I got out of my research was that Arthrogrposis is a birth defect that affects the joints and muscles, mainly causing severe joint contractures. It affects each person differently and doesn't always affect the same joints across the board. The one word that continued to stand out to me during my research was RARE. My condition is described as rare. During adolescence, when we want nothing more than to be accepted, to belong, the last thing a young lady wants to hear is that her differences are RARE! Throughout my life so far, I've been truly blessed to meet other people with Arthrogryposis. Unfortunately for me, most of them were male, or were females at a very different point in...

"In some ways we are different, but in so many ways we are the same." My 2 year old Little Bear (son) is currently obsessed with Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, a PBS show created in honor of Mr. Roger's himself. I'll admit, I wasn't a huge Mr. Roger's Neighborhood fan, but the man and his show are pretty iconic. Who can forget his jingle? How about his sweater? C'mon, you know you do. I love Daniel Tiger for many reasons, but today I caught my son watching an episode called "Daniel's New Friend; Same and Different." It featured a character using crutches an wearing leg braces and focused on all the characters differences, and similarities. This made me tear up because I don't think parents today share this concept enough with children. Particularly during puberty, all kids want to do is fit in. We've all been there, and I'm not sure it can be fully prevented, but I'm so excited that my Little Bear will learn that ...

And I'm back! I spent the last 4 days in Indiana for a friend's wedding, so I couldn't get here. However, I'm back and ready to share more DiversAble goodness with everyone. If you know me, or followed this blog since inception, you know I have severely limited use of my hands/arms. My husband takes care of most of my activities of daily living. I get compliments all the time on my makeup and hair. I've taught him my style preferences and we still have lots to work on, but I owe my stylish looks (and my bad hair days) all to him. This is why I was so excited to find out my Chloe + Isabel business partnered with celebrity harstylist, Jen Atkin! This woman has styled the best of the best celebrities including Jennifer Lopez, Gwen Stefani, and the Kardashians. Whether you like all the celebrities she has styled or not, you have to admit the #girlboss has skills. She also has a vision of inspiring other people and empowering them to learn the skills she has. One of ...

Hello Everyone and welcome back to The (improved) DiversAble Model Project's Blog!! If you missed my LIVE re-launch video, be sure to check out my video post from Friday. There you'll learn more about what happened to the blog and why I'm relaunching now. You'll also get an explanation of our new tagline, "Unveiling True Beauty." To kick-off our first "official" post (I guess they're all official, right?) I had to share this video! It has gone viral over the weekend, so many of you may have seen it, but this young girl's reaction reaffirms everything this blog stands for. Watch and then continue reading to understand what I mean: There are so many amazing things happening here! Emma Bennett is a 10 year old girl who has a prosthetic leg. Her mom, Courtney Fletcher Bennett, had an American Doll shipped off to an organization called A Step Ahead Prosthetics. This organization specializes in designing prosthetic limbs for humans, but ...

#micdrop ;-)