Rockville, Md., Oct. 23 – Crazy Ex-Girlfriend on the CW just entered its third season. This season follows the main character, Rebecca Bunch, as she copes with being left at the altar when her fiancé suddenly decided to join the priesthood.
Writer, producer and actress Rachel Bloom says of her character, “She is going into this season saying, ‘I am a sexy, strong woman scorned.’”
Rockville, Md., Oct. 23 – Television series by Dan Fogelman, This Is Us, is unraveling the stigma around anxiety, addressing physical health and alluding to an upcoming plot-line with a heavy focus on addiction.
Not only is the show written in a way that people can connect with but it also is subliminally inviting the everyday viewer to join the conversation about the inclusion of people with disabilities.
Rockville, Md., Oct. 23 – Speechless had two important teachable lessons in this week’s episode. This episode highlighted the importance of being an aide to a child with a disability and the value of parents letting their children try new things before deciding if they can or cannot do it.
J.J.’s mother Maya took on the task of training underachiever teachers at the school to become aides for new students with disabilities. At first it seems like the aides were not very interested in learning, so Maya decided to make them quit, which would allow the district to hire qualified aides. However, Kenneth secretly gave them advice and told them not to quit, and they prove themselves worthy of the position.
Michelle Rodriguez on set
Rockville, Md., Oct. 16 – The country just finished celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month, which began on September 15, 2017 and ended October 15, 2017. National Hispanic Heritage Month recognizes the contributions made and the important presence of Hispanic and Latino Americans to the United States and celebrates their heritage and culture. It is important to note this includes 4,869,400 Latinos living with a disability in the U.S.
Only 37 percent of working-age Latinos with disabilities are employed in the U.S., compared to 73.9 percent of working-age Latinos without disabilities. This is in line with the rest of the country, with fully one-in-five Americans having a disability and just 30 percent of those who are working-age being employed, despite polls showing that most of them want to work.
Salma Hayek
Rockville, Md., Oct 15 – Actress and producer Salma Hayek Jiménez has embraced her disability – dyslexia – from a very young age. Born in Mexico, Hayek was sent to a Catholic boarding school in New Orleans at the age of 12 where she was quickly expelled for setting all of the nun’s clocks back three hours.
“I’m very lucky I didn’t have it easy, because I’ve learned so much from having to figure out everything on my own and create things for myself,” said Hayek. “Now I can teach what I’ve learned to the next generation.”
After boarding school, Hayek spent time at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City; however, she quit to pursue her acting career and left Mexico for Hollywood.
“I came here and I didn’t speak English, I didn’t have a green card, I didn’t know I had to have an agent, I couldn’t drive, I was dyslexic,” she said in an interview with Oprah.
But Hayek did not let any of that stop her. She adjusted. Reading scripts more slowly due to her dyslexia and working on her memorization skills so she would only have to read the lines once, she landed parts in major films such as Fools Rush In and Will Smith’s Wild Wild West.
Selena Gomez
Rockville, Md., Oct. 15 – Two years ago, pop star and actress Selena Gomez strutted onto Ellen DeGeneres stage wearing a black floor-length dress and heels. Her hair was slicked back and wavy. Her face held a look of intention. She sat with both a stiff back and smile and told Ellen and the world what it is like to live with Lupus.
“It is an autoimmune disease; I will have it forever and you just have to take care of yourself,” Gomez told Ellen and the audience. “I can relate to people.”
Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease that causes the body to attack itself, unable to differentiate between its own healthy tissue and invaders. According to the Lupus Foundation of America, 1.5 million people have Lupus in America and five million have it worldwide.
Since her diagnosis, Gomez now 25, has prioritized her wellbeing but also has continued advancing her career. Studies show many people within the Latino and other communities hide their invisible disability due to negative stigmas, but Gomez has chosen to use her expansive platform to educate the world and invite people to engage with and learn about disabilities. It is because of this, that she is the perfect candidate for RespectAbility’s #RespectTheAbility campaign, which is highlighting individuals with disabilities who are extremely successful in their chosen career.
Michelle Rodriguez on set of Fast and Furious
Rockville, Md., Oct. 15 – Known for her sexy and confident female roles in Lost and Fast and Furious, Michelle Rodriguez, a Hispanic actress, now has set her eyes on writing and directing movies.
“I want to write and direct, but it’s not easy with ADD. I have a hard time focusing when I’m alone. I’m a scatterbrain, but I’m nervous of taking medication, I don’t really want to depend on anything to control my brain,” Rodriguez said in an interview with World Entertainment News Network (WENN).
She was born in Texas to Dominican mother Carmen Milady Rodriquez and Puerto Rican father Rafael Rodriquez, but moved to the Dominican Republic to be raised by her mother at the age of eight. She was partly raised by her maternal grandmother. However, at the age of 11, she moved to Puerto Rico with her mother.
Rodriguez has Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), which led her to being expelled from five schools. She dropped out of high school but earned her GED privately. At the age of 17, she moved back to the U.S., where she resided in New Jersey. She attended business school but would leave for short periods of time to pursue acting as a career.
Gina Rodriguez
Rockville, Md., Oct. 15 – Fans of the hit CW show Jane the Virgin know star Gina Rodriguez as an open personality on social media. She frequently posts about topics important to her—feminism, body positivity, politics—but she recently opened up on Instagram about a topic the actress had not previously discussed—her anxiety.
Rodriguez posted a video taken by her friend, artist Anton Soggiu, as a piece of “ten second portrait” art. The video showed a smiling and shifting, makeup-less Rodriguez in the streets of Los Angeles.
“I suffer from anxiety. And watching this clip I could see how anxious I was but I empathize with myself. I wanted to protect her and tell her it’s ok to be anxious, there is nothing different or strange about having anxiety and I will prevail. I like watching this video. It makes me uncomfortable but there is a freedom I feel maybe even an acceptance. This is me. Puro Gina,” Rodriguez wrote in the caption underneath the video.
Demi Lovato
Rockville, Md., Oct. 15 – Pop icon and champion for body positivity Demi Lovato uses their voice to do more than just sing.
Lovato, 25, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2011 while seeking treatment for an eating disorder, depression and their battle with self-harm.
“It’s important to speak up about the things you believe in, because your voice will be heard no matter what position you’re in,” they shared. “I just happen to be in a position where more people would hear my voice.”
Cristina Sanz
Rockville, Md., Oct. 15 – Fans of the hit A&E docu-series Born this Way know Cristina Sanz as a lovable, fun and family-oriented dancer and romantic. Last year, Sanz became the first Hispanic woman with a disability to win an Emmy award.
When Born This Way won the Emmy for Outstanding Unstructured Reality Series last year, it made history for being not only the first show to win an Emmy that stars people with disabilities but also for having a cast that includes people with disabilities who are African American, Hispanic and Asian.
“Even though people of all races, genders and sexual orientation have disabilities, the media tends to only show white characters,” Born This Way Producer Jonathan Murray said. “John, Cristina and Elena have Down syndrome, but they also are the first individuals from the African American, Hispanic and Asian community with a disability to earn an Emmy. This is a breakthrough for those minority communities as well.”
Sanz also did something that her parents never imagined—she moved out of the house, works at two jobs and became engaged to her boyfriend of five years, Angel.
“I will not wake up waiting for my daughter to come back from a date like my mother did for me,” her mother, Beatriz Sanz, said she used to think. But, Cristina Sanz is the first of her siblings to be getting married now.
