HANNAH OLATEJU: Oh! I would say to people who do have a negative view of amputees and not just
amputees, disabled people - to get a life. Maybe I shouldn’t say that, I dunno.
COMM: 18-year-old Hannah was diagnosed with meningitis at two and a half years old, after her limbs
contracted gangrene due to the condition. She had to have both her arms and legs amputated.
HANNAH OLATEJU: I think I was ill at one point and I got into the hospital. By time I got to the hospital,
I think at one point I collapsed from when they found a rash.
HANNAH OLATEJU: With meningitis, it’s the gangrene that spreads. So wherever it spreads to it kills the nerves,
the cells, everything. So they had to act very quickly before it spread to my lungs. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be
here. People tried to bully me but they were not successful. My mum raised me better than that.
HANNAH OLATEJU: I would just simply kill them with kindness. My confidence was at the point where
I wouldn't post selfies, I wouldn't post anything about myself. I would kind of wear black and not really dress
well. And like now, I don’t like wearing black. Unless it’s like leather, you know.
HANNAH OLATEJU: Yeah, I think, I have come a long way, but there is still a long way to go as with anything, you know.
COMM: Growing up, Hannah struggled with her self-confidence. But after a trip away, her confidence in
herself grew and pushed to try new things.
HANNAH OLATEJU: A turning point for me, for my confidence was one summer when I went to Jamaica.
Over there, everyone’s so confident and happy regardless of their body size and what they look like and I felt like I
took a lot of that with me and brought it back here. So when I came back that’s when I started posting my hair,
posting collaborative makeup. I decided I wanted to post makeup tutorials on to YouTube. I feel like it would help
other amputees, especially new amputees and it also inspired people to say that, “Oh, my situation isn’t really
bad when - not doubting myself or anything - she has got no arms and she can do makeup" and some people say I
do makeup better than them. So I feel like you would give them the motivation to go for their dreams.
HANNAH OLATEJU: The hardest thing to do with my makeup was contouring. First of all because I didn’t
know how to do it and I wasn’t sure on the angle to hold the brushes, which is why I tend to use longer brushes,
as longer the brush, the better.
HANNAH OLATEJU: This is the 'in progress', actually it's very symmetrical.
HANNAH OLATEJU: Custom makeup has helped me in my confidence in way that I can as I said, express myself
more for example, purple lipstick. I think, that makes me feel like a boss you know, and like with the hair as well,
it makes me feel like a unicorn.
HANNAH OLATEJU: When I get negative comments, I just delete them because I know who I am so I don’t
need someone to tell me something when they don’t even know me.
BYRON: When Hannah was diagnosed with meningitis it was you know, it was a very challenging time for us as a family.
BYRON: I remember the whole journey from her spending a year in hospital and to her coming out
bandaged to her starting to walk. So my memory is always quite positive ones actually because it just
amazes me to see the things that she overcomes.
BIANCA: Every teenager has that kind of teenage struggle when it’s hard growing up anyway. So I think
Hannah has done an amazing job at you know, still being so confident and so outgoing and not letting the fact
that she is an amputee get in her way.
COMM: As well as Hannah’s online makeup tutorials, she has also started to express herself
through spoken word.
HANNAH OLATEJU: I started dabbling into spoken word around last year, last summer – when I was traveling
around the Caribbean. Spoken Word is another way where you can have a dramatic impact in people that
can actually, like you are giving them positive energy.
HANNAH OLATEJU: My flaws, my quirks, my oddities are what make me. My roles do not define me, nor do
they label me. My scars do not scar me, my marks do not mark me. It is my soul that is the essence of me.
Me as a woman with the world in my hands; me as a amputee with a vision of success; me as a person with a
not so-called socially accepted body. We are taught to loathe every cell, every hair, every lash on our body.
And even though some of us try to unlock that love for ourselves, that we know is hiding inside us somewhere.
Companies continue to profit from our self-loathing, making us anxious, depressed and fearful of life’s
greatest quirks. That we almost forget that we are only mortal beings, permitted to roam this earth once. It is
that time that is precious. It is that time that is sacred. It is that time to be me.
HANNAH OLATEJU: I think when people approach me asking if I am happy as an amputee, it depends on how
they approach because I have had some very negative ones. People have said, ‘Oh how you are so happy?’ And I
am like well, why shouldn’t I be? Just because I don’t have arms, legs doesn’t mean I am incapable of being
happy. I am incapable of having education. I don’t like using the word disabled when I am talking about myself
because, I feel like with people, especially society, they have such a negative connotation onto it as in disabled.
Okay, they don’t have a love life, they can’t do their own thing, they don’t go out clubbing and they don’t go out
drinking. I don’t want these things, I am more. So why should I label myself?
HANNAH OLATEJU: Body positivity is being confident with your body regardless of who tries to shame you or
whatever tries to put you down because at the end of the day, we are going to die one day, no I shouldn’t say that.
Yeah, at the end of the day we are all going to die. So we might as well enjoy the time now.
I think we should just do what we want to do and forget the rest.