Thursday, October 26, 2023

CURES FOR LONELINESS: Writing & Illustrating Disability

 





CURES FOR LONELINESS: WRITING & ILLUSTRATING DISABILITY

by Charlotte Sullivan Wild

Photo by C. S. Wild 2021 - Nighttime window with a reflection/ silhouette of a figure with hair in a loose bun, lamp and dressers from a living room, looking out on fading sunset, silhouette of trees and a barn. The moon looks like a small jewel or tear on the figure's face.


Loneliness

While every disabled person is unique, I suspect at some point, we all share loneliness. Isolation has absolutely been the hardest part of becoming chronically ill. Yet, I’m not alone.

A former student started using a wheelchair at age twelve and moved shortly thereafter. This kid full of macabre humor suddenly felt shy. They didn’t make many friends. Or fit in.

A neurodiverse elder recently told me, they’d felt “different” their whole life. They longed for connection, but got beaten up as a kid, and still feel left out.

Sometimes disability itself isolates us. 

Too often, inaccessibility and prejudice do, too. 
And no wonder. Most of us grew up without affirming disability stories. Instead - we got infantilizing or villainous or gas-lighting images of disabled people. Or inspiration porn (a term coined by Stella Young) created for able people


A grainy, sepia image of carnations against a blue sky with white text in the sky: "The only disability in life is a bad attitude."
Inspiration porn quote by Scott Hamilton: "The only disability in life is a bad attitude." The grainy, sepia image of pink carnations against a cloudless sky doesn't change the insult of this platitude. Disabilities are real. As are barriers and prejudice. Objectifying disabled people to make able people feel good, signals that disabled people are indeed alone.



But unlike many of our disabilities, loneliness is curable.



Little Cures

As book makers, we can dream a less lonely world into being. Imagine what authentic disability stories would have meant to my elder. My student. Their peers and teachers. When I was first cut off with illness, I was lost. Some of your books were lifelines. 


Authentic stories can reassure disabled kids: they aren't alone. Model that it's okay to ask for what you need, to draw boundaries, and care for yourself.
They can normalize hanging with the new kid who uses a wheelchair or noise-cancelling headphones. 

There is no cure for my illness. But sometimes the smallest help is life-changing. 

Likewise, one book can’t solve everything. But authentic books 
can affirm kids, model friendship, and dismantle ableism - page by page. 


Little cures can change lives. 


Pictured: Sepia photo of the book Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens, edited by Marieke Nijkamp on a wooden table, surrounded by my other little cures: pill organization box, liquid brown medicine bottle and syringe, sprays, salt, electrolyte packs, compression socks, sunglasses, hot and cold packs, wrist heart rate monitor, bandana to cover unwashed hair, since bathing takes a 2-3 day recovery.

My little cures: Sepia photo of the book Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens, edited by Marieke Nijkamp, on a wooden table, surrounded by pill organization box, liquid brown medicine bottle and syringe, sprays, salt, electrolyte packs, compression socks, sunglasses, hot and cold packs, wrist heart rate monitor, bandana to cover unwashed hair (bathing = 2-3 day recovery).



Curing Loneliness Together


How do we make little cures?

For me, disability makes writing harder. Beyond physical and mental limits, I've struggled most with the loss of contact: 
school visits, conferences, agent and editor talks, critique groups, and social support. To cure kids' loneliness, disabled artists need accessible community themselves. This requires flexibility and cooperation from able allies.

Second, all of us 
(with limits) can create disability representation. For that, able people need us


We do this together:

  1. Disability Groups 
    My peers are invaluable! They remind me our stories matter. Gently correct my mistakes. Model how to survive, strategize, and confront ableism. And rest. They teach me to keep learning. To keep writing cures for loneliness. 

  2. Able Allies - invaluable, too!

    1. Illustrators, continue portraying more diverse disabilities and bodies. Yet push beyond defaults, like old manual wheelchairs. (Resources below)

    2. Writers, avoid ableist tropes (see below). Consider whether you should write a disabled main character. Involve and compensate us in research, even if you have disabled family. (My perspective can differ from that of even loving caregivers.) 

    3. Community leaders, reach out. Ask us what barriers remain. Center us in every discussion on disability. 

  3. Everyone!
    Boost disability books, especially with intersectional representation.


Together,
by lessening the loneliness of disabled creators, 
by collaborating,


we can create for kids


bookshelves full of cures 
for loneliness.



The author is being wheeled through the woods, over grass, in her reclining "Franken-Chair" (as it's affectionately called) with elevated foot rests. I have a big, silly, open-mouthed grin on my face. I've a blonde bob, blue hoodie, gray pants and rainbow socks. A smiling friend in a baseball cap and beard is pushing the chair, another man walks along side. We were on the way to the boat - first time in four years!

Rare moment with friends! The author is being wheeled through the woods, over grass, in a reclining manual wheelchair with elevated foot rests, which I affectionately call The Franken-Chair. I have a big, silly, open-mouthed grin on my face. I've a blonde bob, blue hoodie, gray pants and rainbow socks. A smiling friend in a baseball cap and beard is pushing the chair; another man walks along side.



RESOURCES

For Disabled Creatives:

Illustrating More Diverse Aids/ Disabilities (Please!) and Manual Wheelchairs

Avoiding Ableist Tropes (Authors/ Illustrators)


The author, a white woman with long, blonde hair and glasses and violet shirt holds the picture book LOVE, VIOLET beside a window. The book cover: The cover of the picture book LOVE, VIOLET: In a snowscape with warm, sunset sky and falling snow, a peach-skinned girl with short, asymmetrical red hair, cowgirl hat, and purple coat holds a pink valentine heart to her chin, smiling toward a girl smiling back, who has brown skin and thick curly black hair and is wearing violet stocking cap and winter coat and is running happily toward the edge of the book.

Author Charlotte Sullivan Wild (light skin with long, honey-colored hair, glasses, violet shirt, smiling) sitting/ leaning in a window corner, holding up the picture book Love, Violet (illus. Charlene Chua, FSG), which features Violet with short, red hair in her cowgirl hat, peach skin, holding a valentine and smiling at Mira, who smiles back, with thick curly dark hair and brown skin, running into the snowy sunset.


Cover of the picture book The Amazing Idea of You. Blue background with red script words fo the title curved over a circle of vines. Inside the circle is an Asian girl with bob hair, eyes closed, arms extended up; beside her are a yellow gosling and apple with a bite out of it.
Charlotte Sullivan Wild 
is the author of several picture books. LOVE, VIOLET, (illus. Charlene ChuaFarrar, Straus and Giroux; 2022), is a Stonewall Book Award winner, Charlotte Huck Honor Book, Lambda Literary Award Finalist, and Bookstagang’s Best of 2022 winner for Future Classics and Community Favorites (video). THE AMAZING IDEA OF YOU was illustrated by Mary Lundquist (Bloomsbury, 2019). Before becoming chronically ill with ME/CFS and POTS, she worked as an educator, bookseller, and volunteer radio host. She founded the Picture Book Salon of San Antonio and served as the RA for SCBWI Southwest Texas. Originally from frosty Minnesota, she now lives wherever her wife is stationed, recently in Texas, then Italy (with chickens!), and now Colorado. Learn more: www.charlotteswild.com

Picture book cover of The Amazing Idea of You (illus. Mary Lundquist, Bloomsbury). Blue watercolor around edges, red script for title in an arc over a circle of vines. Inside the circle, an Asian girl kneels, smiling, eyes closed, with straight, bobbed hair, arms extended up and out in a peaceful, open gesture; beside her are a curious yellow gosling and apple with a bite out of it.


1 comment:

  1. This is exactly the article (and resources) I have been looking for!

    ReplyDelete