BlissFullU

This is a story about a girl after my own heart!

Anyone who knows me personally knows that my wardrobe tends to include anything I can find that has sparkles, sequins, rhinestones, metallics, or anything else shiny and glittering.  My husband calls me a crow, because apparently crows like shiny things, and collect them to play with and to decorate their nest, even though they can’t eat them or do anything “useful” with them (which is more typical behavior in the bird kingdom, it seems, boring as that may be).

This baby is Jordan Reeves, who was born 11 years ago with a full right arm and a left arm that stops after the humerus.  Her mom, Jen Reeves, began blogging about her journey about parenting a child who is perfect, including her limb difference, on a site called BornJustRight.com (from which the picture above was taken) .

Both Jen and Jordan, plus Jordan’s big brother and father, sound like incredible people, just based on reading their blog.  But a while ago, Jordan got to go to special camp for children with limb difference run by a non-profit called  KIDmob that believes that design education can empower students and allow them to find new modes of creative expression.  While  KIDmob has various workshops, the one that Jordan went to supported young people with limb differences to design and create their own superhero-inspired prosthetics!

In Jordan’s case, she wanted her superhero power to be to spray the world with glitter.  Why?  Because, according to Jordan, “You can’t be sad when you’re covered in sparkles.” Because she also loves unicorns, she calls her Glitter Blaster “Project Unicorn,” and designed her prosthetic in the shape of a unicorn horn.   See Jordan and her Project Unicorn in action below:

So I think this is just such a beautiful story of an indomitable spirit, loving and supportive parenting, and the power of education and technology to make life better.  Children’s prosthetics have traditionally been really expensive, and because children are growing, have to be replaced frequently.  But new 3-D printing technology can bring the costs way down, and allow children to develop customized units, such as Jordan’s Glitter Blaster.

This video explains some of the specifics of how they can create these prosthetics, using the example of another child who went to a KIDmob camp:

Jordan and Jen want to expose more young people who are different to design education and new technologies that make their life easier and/or more fun.  You can follow their adventures on BornJustRight.com, or support them financially by purchasing a Project Unicorn tee-shirt.

Uh, did I forget to mention she has already been on national TV, pitched her design ideas to a crew from Shark Tank on the Rachel Ray show, and is giving TED talks?  I think she should hook with the Crocodile Hunter’s son, Robert Irwin, who blew everyone away on The Tonight Show (as I wrote about last week).  Can you imagine them together?  They would be UNSTOPPABLE!!!!

As Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young said so eloquently, “Teach your parents well.”  I’ve certainly learned a lot from these incredible young people.