EP 042 - How extending my little hand to others helped me embrace who I really am w/ Jacqueline Bezaire

Comfort Via Discomfort

Welcome to EP 042 of the CVD Podcast!!
Jacqueline Bezaire has such an incredible and inspiring story!
She was born without fingers on her right hand and refers to that hand as her "little hand." Growing up, she was ashamed of her hand and didn't want to be different, so she never spoke about it and she hid it whenever she could.
Later in life, Jacqueline's perspective was forever changed after she met a little girl with a similar limb difference. She started to realize that her little hand was only PART of who she was and she decided to embrace this difference rather than avoid it.
Since that mindset shift, Jacqueline has become a huge advocate for those with diverse abilities and limb differences. She shares her story both at work and publicly to help others like her and she is also a model for Kello Inclusive - the disability-focused media company that the industry has been waiting for.
In this episode, Jacqueline talks about:

• Growing up with a limb difference
  • Why nobody (even her parents) never talked about it with her
  • How and why she hid her little hand from her friends
  • An uncomfortable situation with a pilot that she'll never forget
• Joining an Employee Resource Group (ERG) at work
  • How this completely changed how she engaged at work
  • What the Diverse Abilities Network is and why groups like this are so important
• The power of the words we use to talk about differences / disabilities
  • What "limb difference" means and how it can be interpreted
  • Why using "diverse ability" may be more appropriate than "disability"
• Why two important moments completely changed her perspective
  • Meeting a little girl with a similar limb difference
  • Thinking about how she wanted her one-year son to grow up
• How we can all embrace discomfort to better connect with one another

Where you can find Jacqueline online and the resources she mentioned in the episode:

• Jacqueline: LinkedIn | Modeling Page on Kello Inclusive
• Resources:
  • The Lucky Fin Project: raising awareness and celebrating those with limb differences
  • mimiTENS: making mittens for our friends in the limb difference community
  • Kello Inclusive: the disability-focused media company that the industry has been waiting for

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