{"id":409,"date":"2017-09-12T21:48:51","date_gmt":"2017-09-12T21:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogschapman.wpenginepowered.com\/tpi\/2017\/09\/12\/melissa-shang\/"},"modified":"2017-09-12T21:48:51","modified_gmt":"2017-09-12T21:48:51","slug":"melissa-shang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/tpi\/2017\/09\/12\/melissa-shang\/","title":{"rendered":"MELISSA SHANG"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you write blogs, or opeds, or opinion pieces, the holy grail is not something Indy and his dad search for, but the New York Times<\/em> pages.\u00a0 Thousands apply each week, and the paper, after running their regular columnists, prints one or two outside authors a day.\u00a0 After writing seven books I got in once, only because I had a unique insight into some aspect of the 2016 presidential campaign.\u00a0 Never heard from them again.\u00a0 An accomplished freelance journalist I know told me, \u201cI am sooo jealous.\u201d\u00a0 More on this in a second.<\/p>\n

One of the great and enduring stereotypes of the disabled is that we\u2019re all sad, lonely, and miserable.\u00a0 Of course, who wouldn\u2019t be, stuck in a wheelchair, or bereft of hearing, or sight?<\/p>\n

Of course, this is nonsense.\u00a0 I\u2019m a hemiplegic, I get solid teaching evaluations, and my next book is due out this month from a major university press.\u00a0 My best buddy in the disabled community is a highly successful writer, and, by the way, a paraplegic.\u00a0 Millions of us are married, are parents, have successful careers.\u00a0 And some are miserable, and have failed lives and love affairs.\u00a0 Just like everybody else.\u00a0 It\u2019s called the human condition.\u00a0 Still the meme of the disgruntled disabled persists.<\/p>\n

Thus, it\u2019s such a joy when someone busts that wide open.\u00a0 Meet Melissa Shang, who titled her recent article, \u201cStories About Disability Don\u2019t Have to Be Sad\u201d.\u00a0 Permit me to quote the opening paragraph:<\/p>\n

\u201cLike any middle schooler, I usually start my day with cereal. Every morning, after brushing my teeth, I have a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch with milk, and try to catch all the flakes with my spoon before they go soggy. I get dressed for the day, and try to put on some makeup before my mom yells at me for hogging the bathroom. Then I go catch the bus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nice, fun, a paragraph out of the booklet that comes with an American Girl doll.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s some things I need to point out here.\u00a0 First, Melissa\u2019s disabled.\u00a0 Her next paragraph explains:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile in most other ways I\u2019m just your typical eighth grader, I also happen to have been born with Charcot-Marie-Tooth, a form of muscular dystrophy. Charcot-Marie-Tooth is a degenerative nerve disease that causes muscles in my arms and legs to atrophy over time. I wear leg braces and use a wheelchair to get around, and have an aide at school who helps me spin my locker combination. Every morning, an accessible bus arrives at my house to pick me up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next, she is fourteen years of age.<\/p>\n

Third, that piece was published on the oped page of the New York Times<\/em> on June 21, 2017.\u00a0 Just for the record, I was sixty-one when they accepted my piece.<\/p>\n

Thus, Melissa is a most remarkable combination of typical kid and amazingly gifted youngster.\u00a0 Who, as a minor fact, happens to be disabled.\u00a0 Here\u2019s her story:<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the most part, despite my wheelchair and knowledge of medical terminology (you build that kind of vocabulary when it\u2019s about your own limbs), my daily reality is mostly the same as that of my classmates. I groan over the same math and science homework, giggle with the same friends, and like every other adolescent, I probably spend too much time on my phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not that much time.\u00a0 \u201cFor the past four years, I\u2019ve been trying to convince everyone else as well that my story doesn\u2019t have to be a sad one.\u201d\u00a0 To most of us, that would mean telling friends, relatives, classmates, and teachers that we were okay, were happy and not miserable.<\/p>\n

In 2013 Melissa took a different route: she initiated a Change.org petition asking American Girl, (\u201cmy favorite doll company\u201d) to make a doll with a disability, earning 140,000 signatures and national publicity, including a writeup in People<\/em> magazine.<\/p>\n

After that, seeking a better depiction of kids like her in literature (\u201csomething like the CupCake Diaries\u201d), she wrote her own book, Mia Lee is Wheeling Through Middle School<\/em>, except instead of selling pastries, the students make YouTube videos. She self-published it, and you can get it on Amazon.<\/p>\n

I bought Mia Lee<\/em>, the first volume written for this age group I\u2019ve read in over half-a-century, and it\u2019s not bad.\u00a0 She opens, \u201cIf I starred in a movie, I wouldn\u2019t be some fairy tale Cinderella.\u00a0 Forget Prince Charming.\u00a0 I\u2019d rather be the movie director, directing all the scenes with my giant megaphone, like \u201cPlaces, everyone!\u201d and \u201cCut!\u201d\u2014except, you know, in sixth grade and in a wheelchair but just as awesome.\u201d\u00a0 Regarding her disability:\u00a0 \u201cBecause I can\u2019t get up and move around a lot, I pay close attention to stuff that most people don\u2019t.\u00a0 It\u2019s like this bonus app automatically uploaded in my head to store more information.\u201d\u00a0 To Melissa, in other words, her condition is a \u201cbonus app\u201d.<\/p>\n

What is it like to be a published author in middle school?\u00a0 Her last lines in the Times<\/em> piece read, \u201cI\u2019ve gone back to being your average middle schooler. Last month, I was in my school play, and now I am getting ready to graduate. On the weekends, I go to the library, where sometimes, I see my book on the \u2018just returned\u2019 shelf. I often wonder who had it checked out. Maybe it was someone who would go on to invite the special needs kid in his class over for a play date. Or maybe, it was another kid with a disability, who could point to the pages and say: \u2018She\u2019s just like me! And she\u2019s happy, too!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Melissa Shang is a young teenager.\u00a0 In some ways she is just like everyone else.\u00a0 But in others she is different, very, very special.\u00a0 And in the best ways possible.<\/p>\n

Robert A. Slayton is the Henry Salvatori Professor of American Values and Traditions in the Department of History<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/06\/21\/opinion\/stories-about-disability-dont-have-to-be-sad.html<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Mia-Wheeling-Through-Middle-School\/dp\/0692746900<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by, Robert A. Slayton, Ph.D.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2095,"featured_media":425,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/tpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/tpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/tpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/tpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2095"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/tpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/tpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/tpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/tpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/tpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/tpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}