'Paralyzed Bride's' Racy Photos Inspire #WhatMakesYouSexy
Nothing's stopping Rachelle Chapman from sexy.
— -- "This is for that 22-year-old single girl in a wheelchair at the bar."
The social media campaign #whatmakesmesexy was started with that girl in mind by Rachelle Chapman, a young woman who, in 2010, was injured at her bachelorette party and paralyzed.
Then Rachelle Friedman, Chapman married the man she was engaged to at the time of the accident and they now have a three-month-old baby girl names Kaylee. She also wrote a book called The Promise: A Tragic Accident, a Paralyzed Bride, and the Power of Love, Loyalty, and Friendship.
She started posting her #whatmakesmesexy photos to Instagram in July and she said the response so far has been "overwhelmingly positive." She said the opinions of those who don't like the photos or who don't think they're appropriate don't really matter.
"I've received a lot of messages from people who specifically tell me this [the photos] helps them."
After her injury, "my body changed a lot." Chapman said she struggled with self confidence and sexuality.
"Sexuality is not all of who were are, but it is part of who we are," she said. The same goes for a relationship, she said. It's not all of it, but it is a part of it.
"I want to open up a conversation about disability and sexuality," she said. "Fewer than 10 percent of people have dated someone with a disability." Chapman said she thinks that's partially because of a general misconception that people with disabilities cannot have sex. "I have a healthy and intimate sex life," she said.
The hashtag #Whatmakesmesexy, Chapman said, is about finding the thing about yourself you love and posting it for the world to see. It's ok if that's not your body," she said. "It could be your confidence or your sense of humor, whatever you love about yourself."
Chapman insists she's "not trying to glamorize disability. I am fighting for a cure, I don't want to have a spinal cord injury," she said. "Some people see the wheelchair and they can't see past it. I'm exactly the same person when I get out of the wheelchair."
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