Princesses are meant to be perfect, but no one is perfect, which is why not a lot of girls actually feel like they can relate to being a Princess. This is further true for people who don’t look like the traditional princesses, i.e. white as snow, lips as red as blood, waist as thin as a stick, etc. Let’s be honest, no one looks like that. This becomes especially true when you look difference, i.e. you are differently abled or have some condition. Trying to find yourself being represented is popular media is next to impossible. Mandy Pursely faced a similar dilemma, so she decided to represent. So, without further ado, here is Cinderella with the Glass Arm.
Mandy Pursely had her right arm amputated as a child. Growing up as an amputee, she never saw anyone represented in the media that looked like her. Something she admits she struggled with, Pursely said, “When I was growing up with a physical difference, I never saw girls like myself represented in the media, so it took me a long time to realize that what makes us different can also be the thing that makes us strong, beautiful, and unapologetically unique.”
She decided that she was not going to let others grow up doubting themselves, which is why she now spends her days dressing up in cosplay so that other children would never have to grow up without representation.
She was recently contacted by a friend, asking if she had any pictures she could share with a little girl who had one arm. She has done a photoshoot as Cinderella, which she has not yet release, but Mandy felt that the girl’s need was more dire. “When my daughter was studying Cinderella stories at school last year, I realized that even though there were so many beautiful tales from around the world, there were still no princesses who looked like ME!… So what do you do when you can’t find a princess like you? You make up your own!.”
So, please welcome, Cinderella with the Glass Arm:
Pursely said that, “This costume is dedicated to all the little girls learning to navigate the world with their “lucky fins” or other challenges. I hope you know you are beautiful, and that you are UNSTOPPABLE!!! Write your own story, and be your own kind of princess. ❤”
P.S. Prince Charming is her real life Prince, her husband Ryan Pursley.
You can see more pictures by Pursely on her Cosplay page, Be the Spark Cosplay.
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