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Are you sad because you’re disabled?

Stephanie Cosenza
/
For KBIA
Zarinna Elizondo and Madi Lawson met on Instagram when a post about makeup and SMA caught Zarinna's eye. Unfortunately, the disease that brought the girls together separated them in December 2017 when Zarinna passed away.

Madi says people often feel sorry for her for the wrong reasons. It's not the fact that she has SMA or uses a wheelchair that make her sad, it's the same things as any 21-year-old: boys, school or simply a bad hair day. 

In this episode, Madi and Becky take a look at the world of disabilities and mental health. Separated into two different chunks, the first part of the episode questions the assumptions others have about the mental health of people with disabilities through reflections on a local TEDx talk done by Hayden, a friend of Madi's.

The second part of the episode deals with love, loss and resilience, as Madi talks about one of her best friends, Zarinna, who also had SMA and passed away in December 2017 at the age of 18.

Hosts: Madison Lawson, Rebecca Smith

Producer: Trevor Hook, Rebecca Smith

Editor: Ryan Famuliner

Online and Social: Nathan Lawrence

Executive Producer: Aaron Hay