- You can race in your wheelchair?
- Absolutely.
- How fast can you go?
(wheelchair wheels turn)
Whoa.
(classical music)
- Hi.
- I'm Xera.
- Hi, Evelyna.
- Hi, my name is Sophia.
- Hi, I'm Evelyna.
- Hi, I'm Dustin.
- I'm Gigi.
- Her name is the easiest of names.
- Why you in a wheelchair?
- Were you born with it?
- I was born not being able to walk, yes.
- Knew it!
- But I wasn't born with the wheelchair.
- Oh.
- Are you in pain?
- Nope.
- Can you walk?
- I cannot walk.
My feet can't really even move.
Something happened in my back before I was born
- You stepped on a crack?
(laughter from off-camera)
- Not really.
While I was growing inside my mother,
it was kinda hard to step on cracks.
(laughs)
But that's a good guess.
I was born with a disability called spina bifida.
- Spina bifida. - Spina bifida.
- How do you pronounce it again?
- Spina.
- Bifida.
- Bifida. - Yes.
- Spina bif. Spina bifida.
- Sounds like a made up word.
"Da" at the end of a word doesn't sound real.
(laughs)
Like binadifida.
(laughs)
- So what is spina bifida?
- When I was born, there was a big fluid sac on my back,
and my spine was basically in that sac.
There's nerve damage and things like that, and I can't walk.
- Have you had any surgeries for this?
- I've had around 10.
It's actually pretty minimal
for somebody with spinal bifida.
- I had a full spinal fusion in 2016,
and I know my recovery was terrible.
- I also had a spinal fusion. - Yeah?
- That was one of my surgeries, or two of 'em.
- I had a full one, yeah.
- Did you have the rods in all the way down your back?
- Yeah, yes. I have two rods and 19 screws
all the way down my back.
- Yeah, like a mini hardware store.
- Yeah. - Yay.
- What was it like growing up with spinal bifida?
- At times, it was kind of hard actually.
Some kids would say,
"Look at that little baby in her stroller."
- How would that make you feel?
- That did not make me feel good at all
because I wasn't a baby.
This is not a stroller.
I was very self-conscious, very shy,
and very embarrassed about my disability.
I didn't talk to anybody.
I didn't really have too many friends.
Lots of people called me names.
There were people who actually wanted to fight me
because I was an easy target.
- What do you mean people tried to fight you,
and why would they do that?
- A couple of boys just threatened
to beat me up after class.
- Did you ever tell someone?
- I told my brother one time,
and he went to the school and scared him,
so he did not want to beat me up anymore after that.
(laughs)
- Would you do it at a boy for me?
- Now, that depends.
Will you pay me $20?
(laughs) - Nope.
(laughs)
- What was the turning point for accepting your disability?
- When I was in high school, I got into theater.
That really helped me overcome my shyness,
which actually really helped me
to become more confident in myself.
- I'm actually in theater, too, by the way.
- Oh, yay! (claps)
I love to hear about other actors.
I think it's fantastic, I love theater.
- What's your job?
- I do makeup and I do voice acting.
- Ooh.
- Really?
- Yeah.
- Is there anything I would know?
- I have voiced some audio books.
- Do you've any fine voices or cool voices
you do when you're voice acting?
- I can scream.
- Show us.
(screams)
- Whoa.
(laughs)
That was really loud.
- How do you do that?
Do you push it forward?
- [Interviewer] You can show them.
- You wanna see?
I can do this.
- Whoa!
- Whoa.
THat's cool.
- Ooh.
- [Interviewer] You guys know what that's called?
It's a wheelie. - The first time that went up,
I thought it was gonna hit my leg.
(laughs)
- Have you ever gone down a hill
and you started rolling really fast?
- All the time.
That's one of my favorite things to do,
but I have to be very, very careful.
- So then when you stop, you don't go woo.
- Yep.
- Have you faced any social stigma?
- To get work is extremely difficult.
It's kind of a touchy subject,
but I feel like it kinda needs to be said.
- Have you ever felt like you didn't get a job
because of your wheelchair?
- Yes.
It was a voiceover job, and I was like, "That's weird."
- And they're not going to see you.
- Exactly.
I don't know, ignorance and stupidity does not discriminate.
- Why do you not have handlebars to push?
- I used to have a lot of people come up to me
and just start pushing me 'cause they thought I needed help,
and I don't like when people do that.
If I picked you up and put you on my lap
because I saw you were limping because your toe
and I thought you needed help walking,
wouldn't that be kinda strange?
- Yeah.
- If I just suddenly, yeah.
- Is there any chance you'll be able to walk again?
- Without the assistance of crutches and braces,
like you or you, no.
- Do you like being in a wheelchair?
- I do.
I like it a lot.
I just find it kind of more fun.
I like to exercise a lot
and I kinda look at it just as good exercise.
- Is there anything people say to you
that you don't like or you get annoyed about?
- It's not a disease, it's not contagious.
We're normal people.
I like my life.
I like it just the way it is in the chair and everything.
(laughs)
[Interviewer] Alright, good job.
Hi, I'm Evelyna.
Thank you for watching Kids Meet.
If you wanna learn more about me,
check for a link down below.
Don't forget to subscribe to HiHo.
Bye.