My Crippled Life-Being Featured in the Media

Let’s talk about the media. And how they portray us. I have done many interviews with different blogs and magazines and social networks. Typically I have full control of how they title what I am featured in, recently I did an interview for Daily Mail. I’m very proud and thankful for this feature, it is wonderful exposure and the story itself is very good. But the title they decided to go with is very unfortunate in my eyes. “Disabled musician found the man of her dreams on TINDER”. Let’s talk about all the things wrong with this title. First and foremost it sounds like an accomplishment that a disabled woman found love. Second the article has very little to do with my love life and how I found my boyfriend . Sure it’s mentioned, I was OK with answering the questions, but when they first came to me it was strictly supposed to be about my music and Crippled is Beautiful, and my life in a wheelchair. They asked questions like, was I bullied in high school, how does my disability affect my day-to-day life, and so on. I was happy to answer these questions because I want to show my advocacy for the disabled community.

During the interview process they sent me a sample of the article and I did not like how they tried to make it seem like I was bullied, and berated constantly throughout my younger years. I in fact was bullied by a few classmates when I was in junior high, and a couple people in high school. But I did not allow that bullying to ruin my life, I did not give power to the bullies, I felt more sorry for them than I did for myself. And if you read the article written about me they do get that point across. But if you just read the title of this article that’s not what you’re expecting to read. Now I understand Clickbait, I understand trying to get more views and shares and likes, but I also am a very honest person and I believe that honesty brings more views, shares, likes and support. I am so thankful that I have these opportunities to speak out about my life and my music and my passions, such as Crippled is Beautiful, but I do not allow people to take advantage of my situation. When they came to me it seemed like they were on my side and they wanted to tell my story in my words, and then they publish the story with that title and I immediately emailed the interviewer back and said I’m very disappointed in the title you chose for this article. Now, if I had gotten an email with the sample article and that title was attached to it I would have had immediately said, look for the disabled community that’s definitely not the title you want to use, but what I’m realizing is this article is not catering to the disabled it is catering to the abled who like to read about people like us in our situations overcome “triumphs“.

If this article was titled “Marna Michele: Wheelchair Bound woman tells us her story of love, music and advocacy” I probably would have nothing to complain about. I’m proud of myself to not be scared to speak up, I’m not putting the article itself down, it gets my point across it talks about my bullying experiences and it gives Crippled is Beautiful and my music light and exposure. But I want the media to be aware of how they title things to get peoples attention. Not everything has to be so dramatic and over the top to get clicks. Or maybe it does and I just don’t know anything… maybe that’s the kind of world we live in. What are your thoughts on the matter?

-Marna Michele