John Green is an Indianapolis-based, bestselling author of realistic, contemporary YA novels. He has given interviews about his diagnosis and experience of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and explored the subject in his most recent novel, Turtles All the Way Down. He also wrote one of the most well-known, beloved, and bestselling YA novels, The Fault in Our Stars.
Cece Bell is an award-winning American author and illustrator of children's books. Her highly acclaimed children's graphic novel-memoir, El Deafo, is based on her own experiences as a child after she lost her hearing due to meningitis.
Maya Angelou was an award-winning author, poet, civil rights activist, college professor and screen writer. Most recognized for her literary works, Angelou was and remains among the most influential woman of her time. Angelou had selective mutism, an anxiety disorder that causes a child to not speak due to physical and psychological trauma they endured. In the five-year span that she experienced this, her listening, observing and memorizing skills improved and her love of books expanded. This helped her later when she began working in becoming successful in her career.
Stephen Wiltshire is a cityscape artist known for his highly detailed ink drawings of cities after only a few seconds glance. He was diagnosed with autism at age three.
A Mexican painter in the Surrealist school of art known for her self portraits. She painted on themes of her identity as a biracial person, death, miscarriage, and disability. She was married to another famous painter, Diego Rivera. In 1925, she was involved in a bus accident, that left her with chronic pain and multiple surgeries over the course of her lifetime.
As a child, Simone Biles was diagnosed with Attention Deficient Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). She takes medication for it, and is an advocate for it on social media. In a public statement, she said that ADHD is, "nothing to be ashamed of and nothing that I'm afraid to let people know." Biles is an Olympic champion who is the most decorated American gymnast of all time. She won individual gold medals in the 2016 Olympics in all-around, vault, and floor, as well as winning the overall team medal with other gymnasts. In the 2020 Olympics she won a bronze medal and was part of the silver medal team. She is a five-time World all-around champion, five-time World floor exercise champion, and six-time United States national all-around champion. She has also won 14 world championship medals.
Michael Phelps was diagnosed with ADHD in elementary school, and his mother, Debbie Phelps, a school administrator near Baltimore, Md., introduced him to swimming to help him cope with his ADHD symptoms. From there, Mr. Phelps swam into history as a top American athlete. He is a five-time Olympian, with a total of 28 medals, which is the all-time record. He also holds the record for most gold medals earned, which is 23.
Amy Purdy began snowboarding at age 15, but when she was 19 she contracted bacterial meningitis. Doctors gave her a two-percent chance of living. She was able to survive the infection, but lost both of her legs below the knee. Despite these setbacks, Purdy went on to become one of the top ranked adaptive snowboarders in the world. She was also the 2014 Sochi Paralympic bronze medalist and is currently the only double-leg amputee competing in snowboarding at the world-class level. In 2005 Amy co-founded Adaptive Action Sports, a non-profit organization that helps those with permanent disabilities get involved in action sports. She has also competed in The Amazing Race and Dancing With The Stars. Her book, On My Own Two Feet, is a New York Times Bestseller.
Kevin Love has achieved a lot in 34 years. He is a five-time National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star. He won an NBA championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016. He is also a basketball world champion and a U.S. Olympic gold medalist. But he has experienced challenges. He lives with depression and anxiety and has suffered from panic attacks. He even had one during an NBA game.
Peyton Manning is a retired NFL quarterback who played for 18 seasons. He is considered by many to be one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. He won numerous awards during his career, including the NFL's Most Valuable Player, which he won five times. However, his start in life was challenging. Born with a cleft palate, Manning struggled with eating, and he was often bullied. He had to endure several surgeries throughout his childhood. In 1999 Peyton and his wife Ashley started the Peyback Foundation, which helps disadvantaged youth with assistance programs. Peyton also has a hospital named after him: Peyton Manning Children's Hospital in Indianapolis.
Rick Hansen sustained a spinal cord injury from a car crash when he was 15 that left him paralyzed from the waist down. He defied the odds and became the first student with a disability to graduate in Physical Education from the University of British Columbia. He went on to become a world-class athlete, competing in numerous international wheelchair marathons. In 1985 Rich began the Man in Motion World Tour, which covered 34 countries and took over 2 years to complete. He raised more than 26 million dollars for spinal cord injury research. He is also an inspirational speaker, a writer, and the founder/CEO of the Rick Hansen Foundation, which exists to raise awareness, change attitudes, and fund spinal cord injury research and care.
A Paralympic athlete and activist from Ghana, West Africa, Emmanual Ofosu Yeboah was born in 1977 without a right shin bone, which resulted in a severely deformed leg. Many disabled people in Africa are believed to be cursed; therefore, they are shunned from society. In fact, Emmanual’s own father abandoned him. But his mother stood by him, pushing Emmanual to pursue his dreams. He attended school, which he had to hop more than two miles to get to, but left home at the age of 13 to provide for his family by shining shoes. He has been a source of motivation to thousands, and the movie Emmanuel's Gift, narrated by Oprah Winfrey, was created about his life.
Bethany Hamilton overcame the loss of her left arm in a shark attack at age 13 to become a world-champion surfer and inspirational public figure. There have been two movies about her life: Soul Surfer and Unstoppable. She has also written several books and is a motivational speaker.
Lil Nas X is an American recording artist, songwriter, and entertainer. His musical talents, particularly in hip hop and rap, have brought him global fame and recognition. Through TikTok videos, he publicly shared his struggles with his mental health, including depression. His strong advocacy for mental health led to The Trevor Project naming him the Suicide Prevention Advocate of the Year in 2021.
Selma Blair is an American actor, disability rights advocate, and author, known for her roles in the films Legally Blonde, Hellboy, and Cruel Intentions. In 2018 Selma was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). In October 2023 she was a speaker at the White House's ceremony to recognize the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Shawn Mendes, a Canadian singer and songwriter, has shared publicly his struggles with severe anxiety. In 2022, he canceled an international concert tour due to anxiety issues. He has also spoken openly about anxiety management strategies and techniques, in hopes of helping others who suffer from anxiety and its effects.
Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott is an American rapper and music producer who has won four Grammy Awards, eight MTV Video Music Awards, six BET Awards, and has been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2008, she was diagnosed with Graves disease, a rare autoimmune disease that attacks the thyroid gland.
Lady Gaga, the world-famous American singer, songwriter, actor, and musician, has shared her experiences of living with fibromyalgia.
Michael J. Fox is a Canadian-American actor and author, best known for his iconic roles in the movie franchise Back to the Future and TV shows Family Ties and Spin City. He is also an advocate for research and treatment of Parkinson's Disease, with which he was diagnosed in the early 1990s.
Andrea Bocelli is an Italian tenor who has found worldwide fame and popularity for his singing of classical, opera, and pop music. He is blind and lost his sight as a child.
Keira Knightley is a British actor known for her roles in films such as Love, Actually, Pride & Prejudice, and the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. As a young child, Keira was diagnosed with Dyslexia.
Marlee Beth Matlin is an American actress. She is the youngest, and only, deaf performer to win the Academy Award for Best Actress, which she won for Children of a Lesser God in 1986. In addition to acting, Matlin has written two books: Deaf Child Crossing and I'll Scream Later. She now stars in Coda, a hit show on Apple TV about a deaf family with a hearing child.
Itzhak Perlman is an Israeli-American violinist, conductor, and music teacher. He is renowned for his incredible musical talent, knowledge and skills and is treasured by audiences around the globe. He contracted polio at the young age of four which had lasting effects on his mobility. He has since walked using crutches and leg braces.
Christopher Reeve had various stage and television roles before becoming the star of Superman and its sequels. In 1995 he became paralyzed from the neck down following a horse-riding accident. From his wheelchair, Reeve went on to direct movies and make appearance in TV shows. He also wrote two autobiographies, Still Me and Nothing is Impossible. He and his wife founded what became the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation in 1996 to promote research on spinal cord injuries.
Alice Wong, who has spinal muscular atrophy, is a research consultant and disability rights activist based in San Francisco. In 2014, on the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, she founded the Disability Visibility Project. It works to ‘create, share and amplify disability media and culture’ by collecting historical recordings of interviews with disabled people in the United States.
Javed Abidi was an Indian activist who served as the director of the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People in India. He also founded the Disability Rights Group. Born with spina bifida, Abidi had several surgeries and was wheelchair bound by the time he was 15. He was a journalist, but his main work was increasing rights and awareness for disabled people. He collaborated with business executives from major companies to employ more individuals with disabilities.
Fatima al-Aqel was an activist for individuals with disabilities. She directed most of her efforts advocating for women with blindness in Yemen. Despite her blindness, Fatima earned a college degree in philosophy. She went on to establish the first school for blind women in Yemen. She also founded the Al-Aman Organization Blind Women Care in 1997.
Daymond John is a multimillionaire and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CEO of the FUBU clothing line, and is one of the "sharks" on the Emmy award-winning television show Shark Tank. As a child, he did well in math and science but struggled with reading. He was initially diagnosed with a learning disorder, but later it became apparent that he is dyslexic. Despite this, his determination and hard word led him to success. He attributes his dyslexia to helping him dream bigger. “I see the world in a different way than most people and for me that’s been a positive thing.” His influence and motivation on TV and through his books and motivational speeches has inspired thousands to overcome challenges and achieve goals.
Founder of the Stars of Hope Center, a disabled persons’ organization that focuses on the empowerment of women with disabilities in the Middle East, Ola Abu Al Ghalib has spent her life advocating for the rights of people with disabilities. At just 12 years old, she had an incomplete tetraplegia spinal injury, caused by a tumor. Ola was recently featured in the Gender Equality Top 100 list of most influential people in global policy in 2019. She has a PhD on Social Protection from the University of East Anglia, UK.
For more than 20 years, Dr. Victor Santiago Pineda has spearheaded initiatives to advance the principles of access and inclusion in the US and abroad. Pineda moved to the United States from Venezuela when he was seven years old because he was denied a right to an education because he was a wheelchair user. He grew up in Orange County and was 12 years old when the ADA was signed into law. By the time he graduated from high school, he realized that he had benefited from rights in the United States that were missing in many parts from around the world.
Simon Stevens, who has cerebral palsy, mild bipolar, asthma, and acute neuropathy, has been an outspoken disabilities activist for a number of years. He set up his own business, Enable Enterprises, through which he works as a disability consultant, trainer, and advocate. Simon is an active Second Life user, a virtual world where people can act out alternate lives. He was the first participant to use a wheelchair as part of his avatar character. He subsequently founded Wheelies, the world’s first disability-themed virtual nightclub within the Second Life world.
Winston Churchill was the Prime Minister of England from 1940-1945 and from 1951-1955. Widely regarded as one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century, Churchill is believed to have suffered from bipolar disorder. After observing numerous symptoms such as depression, suicidal intention, mania, and a decreased need for sleep, Churchill’s doctor, Lord Moran, recounted in his memoir Winston Churchill: The Struggle for Survival, that he had diagnosed a middle-aged Churchill with bipolar disorder.
Stephen Hawking was a British theoretical physicist In his early 20s, he was diagnosed with an early-onset slow-progressing form of motor neurone disease that eventually paralysed him. He communicated through speech-generating device controlled through a handheld switch, and later a cheek muscle. He is known for his prediction that black holes emit radiation, now known as Hawking radiation, and his theory of cosmology that united the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics.
John Nash Jr., was a legendary mathematician and is the only person ever awarded both the Nobel Prize and the Abel Prize. He worked for MIT and later at Princeton University’s Department of Mathematics. He was renowned for his breakthrough work in mathematics and game theory as well as for his struggle with mental illness, specifically schizophrenia. His life was later portrayed in the movie A Beautiful Mind, starring Russell Crowe.
Temple Grandin is a well-known university professor, author, and public speaker. She also has autism. As a child, she was bullied and struggled to make friends. However, one of her science teachers mentored he and encouraged her interest in science. She has had a successful career consulting on both livestock handling equipment design and animal welfare. She has been on numerous national television shows, and there is movie about her life. In 2016 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Bram Cohen is a computer programmer who invented BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer file sharing program that revolutionized the sharing of music and movies on the internet in the early 2000's.
John Green
Cece Bell
Lil Nas X
Selma Blair
Shawn Mendes
Lady Gaga
Michael J. Fox
Andrea Bocelli