#Disabledandcute: The viral campaign inspiring body confidence among the disabled

On Feb. 12, Keah Brown posted these selfies and the hashtag #disabledbutcute, prompting countless others with disabilities to do the same. (Courtesy Keah Brown)

Keah Brown, 25, regularly writes about her struggle with cerebral palsy, a chronic disorder that restricts movement, so she was surprised when some selfies she tweeted with a custom hashtag went viral earlier this month.

But for that tweet prompted countless people to share their stories about being disabled, it promoted a unifying message: Being different and being cute aren’t mutually exclusive.

After tweeting the hashtag #Disabledandcute, strangers with seizures, lupus, autism, blood disorders and more have shared selfies and stories about their disabilities on Twitter to inspire body confidence among people of all kinds.

Brown, of Lockport, New York, and whose Twitter profile indicates she’s a senior entertainment writer for Cliché Magazine, told WIVB.com that she struggled to love herself and her appearance for several years until recently something changed. That’s when she decided to tweet the selfies and begin the now-viral hashtag.

“I realized that I really like myself now, that I’m getting to a good place where I love myself and I love my body,” Brown, who also writes about how she navigates the world as a black woman, told the news station, “and I wanted to make a hashtag that celebrated that. I was about celebrating myself.”