For me, I never ever felt the ownership or any identity with any community of disabilities. I didn’t grow up being told that I was a disabled child. – Aimee Mullins
I didn’t want to be written about as a human-interest story. I didn’t want to be a passing thing. You know, now we move on to the fat girl who had her stomach stapled. I didn’t want to become a gimmick: the disabled model. – Aimee Mullins
I like that Pilates compromises the mind and body. It’s not just about being able to run around the block a few times. It’s about alleviating stress and controlling breathing. It’s about being balanced. – Aimee Mullins
The idea of prosthetics is a tool. Most people’s cell phones are prosthetics. If you leave your cell phone at home, you feel impacted by not having it. It’s an important part of your daily function and what you can do in a day. – Aimee Mullins
I grew up in a town with a great wrestling tradition. Then I was a team sport queen in high school; I played softball, volleyball, and soccer. Oh, and I also did ski racing. – Aimee Mullins
Whether it is your height, your weight or your skin, someone is going to pick on something and make fun of it. My legs were just a more obvious target. – Aimee Mullins
If we want to discover the full potential in our humanity, we need to celebrate those heartbreaking strengths and those glorious disabilities we all have. It is our humanity and all the potential within it that makes us beautiful. – Aimee Mullins
I’m not an advocate for disability issues. Human issues are what interest me. You can’t possibly speak for a diverse group of people. I don’t know what it’s like to be an arm amputee, or have even one flesh-and-bone leg, or to have cerebral palsy. – Aimee Mullins
I’ll be giving a speech at the randomest place, like a bank or something, and a guy in a suit will say, ‘I’m totally freaked out that I’m talking to the girl from ‘Cremaster.’ For the rest of my life, that movie will be playing in a museum somewhere. I never could have expected that huge response. – Aimee Mullins
Belief in oneself is incredibly infectious. It generates momentum, the collective force of which far outweighs any kernel of self-doubt that may creep in. – Aimee Mullins
I think that everyone has something about themselves that they feel is their weakness… their ‘disability.’ And I’m certain we all have one, because I think of a disability as being anything which undermines our belief and confidence in our own abilities. – Aimee Mullins
I had a paper round and every night I would put the dinner on before Mum came home from work. I was capable because I had to be. – Aimee Mullins
When I watch ‘Mad Men’ and I see the patronising attitudes to women that are so shocking for all of us to watch now, I feel that I’ve lived and see the same evolution in this regard around disability. – Aimee Mullins
I like it now when kids stare at me, because it is a way of starting a dialogue. And it is far better than them not looking at you at all. Nothing is worse than not being seen. – Aimee Mullins
I hate the words ‘handicapped’ and ‘disabled’. They imply that you are less than whole. I don’t see myself that way at all. – Aimee Mullins
Kids are naturally curious about what they don’t know, or don’t understand, or what is foreign to them. They only learn to be frightened of those differences when an adult influences them to behave that way and censors that natural curiosity. – Aimee Mullins
Pamela Anderson has more prosthetic in her body than I do. Nobody calls her disabled. – Aimee Mullins
Giving up is conceding that things will never get better, and that is just not true. Ups and downs are a constant in life, and I’ve been belted into that roller coaster a thousand times. – Aimee Mullins
In sports, I refused to do any interviews that were just going to become human-interest stories. Don’t turn me into a tragic heroine. – Aimee Mullins
It’s society that disables an individual by not investing in enough creativity to allow for someone to show us the quality that makes them rare and valuable and capable. – Aimee Mullins
The legs that I have made are far more perfect than the ones nature would have given me – my mother’s side of the family have awful legs. – Aimee Mullins
When I’m curious about something, I do it full on and take it as far as I go, but when I feel like I’ve really explored it, I’m OK with putting it aside and going on to something else. – Aimee Mullins
We all bullet point our triumphs, but I am who I am because of everything you don’t see on my CV. The stuff that doesn’t work out teaches you how to trust your instincts and adapt. – Aimee Mullins
I have found great power in taking my ‘difference’ out for a spin in a very public way. And usually, the worst, most personally embarrassing thing you imagine in your mind is often not anywhere near as bad in real life. – Aimee Mullins
Walking the runway with Alexander McQueen, I really had to dig deep. You’re with Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell. I was the first person out on the runway, but I thought, ‘I have done the Olympics, I can do this.’ – Aimee Mullins
I’ve had journalists asking me, ‘What do we call you – is it handicapped, are you disabled, physically challenged?’ I said, ‘Well hopefully you could just call me Aimee. But if you have to describe it, I’m a bilateral below-the-knee amputee.’ – Aimee Mullins
I haven’t had an easy life, but at some point, you have to take responsibility for yourself and shape who it is that you want to be. I have no time for moaners. I like to chase my dreams and surround myself with other people who are chasing their dreams, too. – Aimee Mullins