by Kitty Pope, Alliance Library System

I thought I was finished having a conversation about creativity. Then, I met via, the Internet, athlete, actor, model and activist Aimee Mullins.

Aimee Mullins had both of her legs amputated below the knee when she was an infant. She learned to walk, and then run, on prosthetics, setting world records at the 1996 Paralympics and becoming the first double amputee to compete in the NCAA. She is amazing!

Aimee graduated in 1998 with a full scholarship from Georgetown University, where she was a part of the Foreign Affairs internship program, and worked at the Pentagon.  In 1999, she modeled for British fashion designer Alexander McQueen on a beautiful pair of hand-carved wooden prosthetic boots. She is able to change her height between 5’ 8” and 6’ 1” by changing her legs!! Aimee is also an accomplished actor, appearing as the Leopard Queen in Matthew Barney’s Cremaster Cycle and became Ambassador for the ESPN Sports Film Festival in 2008. You may recognize her with her Cheetah legs and being named one of the fifty most beautiful people in the world by People Magazine.

Aimee is an advocate for a new kind of creative thinking that is driven by passion and strength. At a February 2009 TED lecture; she compared prosthetic legs to eyeglasses. In the same way that I wear sunglasses to walk the dog (that’s my 3 year old, wild Welsh terrier Diefenbaker in the photo), she wears designer legs. Her message is all about creativity and how it empowers us to do better, reach a bit farther and focus on our aspirations. She is a real example of the power of creativity and how it changes lives; she proves that focusing on our creativity and aspirations builds the future! 

Click on http://www.ted.com/talks/aimee_mullins_prosthetic_aesthetics.html  to hear Aimee talk about her 12 pairs of legs. It’s all about creativity, empowerment and passion!

I was truly inspired, and you will be too!