Thread by @VABVOX

▪wrote a book
▪wrote another book
▪edited 13 books
▪wrote 2k+ articles, columns, investigative series & holy crap 400k tweets.
▪survived a violent rape
▪survived 7 surgeries
▪survived 2 collapsed lungs
▪survived a PE
▪survived paralysis
▪fought Trump
#DecadeinReview

▪write three more books
▪keep doing kick-ass journalism
▪get a motorized wheelchair and wheelchair lift and keep fighting for #disabled people like myself
▪kick Trump out of the people's house
▪live to see 2030
#DecadeChallenge

So I want to go back to this #DecadeinReview again, because lists are easy reading but don't tell the whole story. Nearly dying 5 times between 2009 & 2019 informed literally everything I did/do. It propelled me to walk away from people who dropped me when I couldn't center them.

Nearly dying also heightened my already keen awareness of others' suffering and put me on paths to fix what I could. Nearly dying also catapulted me into poverty. Not on that list was two years of my father dying & what it was to fight for someone who could not fight for himself.

Not on that list is what it is to be a #disabled #lesbian journalist and have to try and pique the interest of editors who are not queer and not #disabled about why your story matters because 1 in 4 Americans has a #disability and at least 5% of us are LGBTQ and our lives matter.

So the #DecadeinReview lists only tell part of the story. I edited 13 books because I had done acquisitions for a publisher who just didn't see a market for books for kids of color or #LGBTQ youth. So I created a market--or rather tapped into one already there.

Not on that list is how the rape I barely survived--a serial rapist nearly killed me in an attack in broad daylight outside my house-- changed my life forever. Had the rape kits been tested, would I have been raped at all or would he have been caught? So many questions.

There is more, but mostly I want to say that our lives as women & marginalized people is about challenging what is deemed normative. If 1 in 4 Americans is #disabled, why do I get handwaved by editors when I pitch stories about #disability?
Just think about it.
#DecadeinReview