LeftyByDefault.com – Laura Overstreet

My grandmother passed away very late at night on September 25, 2011. My grandma was an awesome woman who occasionally made me want to scream, and I was occasionally the heavy with her in the past few years. I came into my identity as a hard ass crip chick and she became more and more [...]

Lately, I have felt silenced and trapped.  Indeed, I realize now that these are feelings that I have long had but only in the past few years have I felt empowered and knowledgable enough to release them. However, I cannot – at this time anyway – write the words and expose my truth in its [...]

“Twenty/20″ I like numbers. I like what they tell us, what they signify, their symmetry, and how they have occupied my time over the years. Dates and anniversaries are the epitome of the power of numbers for me. I’m one of those people who can tell you the dates of almost any significant thing that [...]

Social media. It is a way of life for most of us these days. Who would have ever conceived of common usage of the word “tweet?” Now we use it as a verb and we’re not even chirping like little birds! Social media is a big stinking deal. Even my mom’s on Facebook, people. This [...]

Yesterday was a an absolutely gorgeous Georgia day. I believe the temperature got above 70 degrees, and I was dressed in my favorite spring attire: smooth, khaki colored dress pants, a pink and white striped Oxford shirt, and a white pullover cable-knit sweater. I was just a few colors short of an Easter egg. With [...]

Recently, I have noticed some bloggers discussing the pressure they feel to be happy, funny, proud, and/or any number of similar adjectives at all times despite the pain, frustration, or any number of similar experiences of disability and chronic illness. I will not recount all of the theoretical issues that make up these arguments because [...]

During my Internet time this week, I found three awesome pieces that really exemplify thriving with disability.  The first is a kid who does what he calls “hardcore sitting.”  He has spina bifida and uses his manual chair to do adapted skateboarding tricks.  This dude rocks!  Check out the awesome video here! Next is an article about a [...]

Today is the 1st Annual International Day of Acceptance!  I have written about 3E Love before, but I cannot express often enough how awesome their company is, but more than that is how awesome their message is.  Disability pride, in the true sense of these words, is one of those things that has only recently been a [...]

Today is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.  The official information can be found at http://www.un.org/disabilities/default.asp?id=1484.  Briefly, though, this day is about disability awareness around the world, to remind us that there are more people than most would ever realize who are living with some form of disability, and to work for more inclusive [...]

Thanks to a comment from Trisha in my Welcome post, I have a fun topic to address today.  She asked why I use the term “gimp” to describe myself in the text to the left of the page when explaining the name of my website.  There are seemingly countless opinions and discussions on this topic, [...]