Unveiling a multifaceted star
Actress , journalist , writer , disability rights advocate , diversity consultant , and keynote speaker . She is :
. . . winner of The Susan Mullen Award for Best Actress during the Los Angeles Diversity Film Festival in 2014 ; writer for The Huffington Post , PosAbility magazine , and Metro on a variety of topics such as living with disability , socio-cultural criticisms , patronizing attitudes , body image , bullying , LGBTQ + issues and ableism . She is a speaker for the National Education Union , Viacom , Houses of Parliament , British Red Cross , Santander , Reed Fashion , UNICEF , ASOS , COS Fashion , Creative Equals and Valuable 500 .
Here ' s our conversation with Samantha :
From your perspective , who is Samantha ?
As we would say in the U . K ., I am very much a typical northern lass who is very outspoken , who is quite cheeky , and who is not afraid to work hard . I was born in Germany . My mom was a
German nurse , and my dad was in the British Army . They had a beautiful relationship , overcame their language barrier , and , in my opinion , were both very sexy people .
Neither of them was disabled , and neither is my sister Stephanie , who is nearly 5 years older than me . So , when I came into the world , diagnosed with a condition called Osteogenesis Imperfecta , it scared everyone . I talked in detail about my birth in my first memoir , You are the Best Thing Since Sliced Bread . A lot of that is looking at my birth and having those conversations with family .
My mom , in particular , said something quite heartbreaking there . She said , “ You know , your birth was more like a bereavement than a celebration because everybody was partly negative about your arrival . And it ' s really hard because not only did you come into this world with a label , but you also came with all the unconscious bias that is attached to that label .” And that is something my parents were guilty of . They were both two young 20-somethings , with no experience of how to deal with disability , then all of a sudden , they had this child who everyone thought was going to be a failure and wouldn ' t survive past infancy . It was odd listening to the reaction to my birth from my family .
I had always felt that I was a happy , chatty and confident child growing up . If you ask me where I get my strength , my drive , my aspirations and so on , I think they would ultimately be from that innate sense of selfworth . I liked my uniqueness . I never really saw it as a hindrance in my formative years . I enjoyed being the center of attention . Being in a wheelchair , I didn ’ t feel pitiful when I was approached
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