Nicolette: The most common one is obviously what happened to your arms.
That's like, my life story as everybody's very ignorant to the situation.
Zach: I thought she was amazing from the start.
Nicolette: I just wanted to show people that like, this is how I live my life.
This part takes a lot of concentration.
I learned how to do makeup from YouTube. I'm very particular with my makeup so
it's rare that I'll let someone else do it especially if I have to go somewhere.
I always do it myself.
Because I don't have a whole lot of free range like
with my foot so I have to like move my head to compensate. But that helps.
My name is Nicolette Rivera, and I have Femur Fibula Ulna complex.
It affected my, the growth of my arms and the growth of my femurs and I'm also missing a fibula in
my right leg which makes it shorter than my left leg.
Sorry. I’m looking for something. Where is it?
And that's also why I have five toes on this side,
and four on this side. Because I don't have a fibula in this leg.
I didn't get it from anything. Nothing caused it it's not a syndrome.
It basically it's something that sporadically happened during the embryonic stage.
And there's like no explanation for it.
Everything else developed completely normal.
I think it really helped that I grew up in a very, very small town,
because I've never ever, ever experienced any bullying ever in my whole life.
All the kids were very curious.
And they would just ask me like, oh, how do you do this? Like I want to try too?
Yeah, I can't.
Can I have a, tissue for that too.
I can't do my hair. Really, at all I can play like with my baby hairs, maybe at the top.
But that's it, so my mom usually does my hair.
Nicole: It's not darkening.
Nicolette: I think it is.
But I think you just can't tell because it’s dark in here.
Nicole: Oh there goes oh yeah, it worked.
Hold on come on here, turn this way.
When I had my first ultrasound I was told
all the limbs were there but it wasn't until like the end of my pregnancy
I was like seven months my doctor ordered another ultrasound,
just to be safe and just to check up on everything
and that's when it all started.
Back then they were just like couldn't tell what was going on.
And the doctor said I think we give her 99% chance of not living.
So I went in to deliver her thinking she wasn't going to live.
When, she was born, everything was perfectly fine.
She was the healthiest baby in the NICU. It was a miracle.
Nicolette: I live with my fiancé. So when he's home,
he usually is the one who's helping me with most things.
I started watching YouTube like religiously,
probably when I first went into high school like my freshman year, so I was about like 14- 15 years old.
And I watched it I was like, Oh my gosh, this looks like so much fun.
I could do it too. Like why can I do it?
So I created a channel. So if you couldn't tell already I don’t have arms.
It's the next day now, this morning we just did a bunch of things around the apartment like cleaning and stuff.
And now we're on our way to IKEA.
Today I'm with someone special. Introduce yourself.
Zach: Hi guys, I’m Zach. Nicolette: Oh that was good.
That was good.
Zach: I messaged her first with a pretty corny pickup line.
I just I saw her I’m like Oh, I really want to talk to her.
Yeah, I was just really nervous.
I thought she was amazing from the start.
Nicolette: Usually When we're out in public people,
I mean, not many people come up to us.
But if they do come up to us, they'll be like, Oh my gosh, like,
that's so nice that like talking to Zach, mostly
that like, you're with her. And it's so cool
that you guys are like, whatever, which, I mean, that's nice,
but at the same time, like, what makes it so nice?
Like, I'm just a regular person, like, what makes any difference
that he's with me or if he's with someone else.
So I mean, I know that they mean well, but I don’t know it's not my favourite thing.
Zach: I do see people staring. It's just not to be they're not rude, but they're just curious.
Because I'm just living my life and she's living hers.
Nicole: She's always trying, she always finds a way.
She never says I can't.
Like I always here her, I'll find a way.
I want this. I'll find a way.
That's how she is she's a go getter.
She just takes life.
Zach: I think she's incredible.
She inspires me to do better for myself, because I see what she does every day.
Nicolette: I just wanted to show people that like
I do everything just like you do, like I'm not any different.
And this is how I live my life. If you're ever curious,
this is how I do it and what I do and how I make things,
how I accommodate things to my needs.
And if you feel like you can't do something like, yes, you can.
It’s not hard. You just got to actually try
and once you start doing that you're rolling.