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DEBORAH was born with phocomelia a rare condition which caused her arms to be underdeveloped at birth. When she was born, her mother refused to take her home from the hospital meaning Deborah was placed in an orphanage for the first four and a half years of her life, until she was finally adopted by an American family. After bringing her home to Washington, Deborah's adoptive family set to work on helping her find ways to be independent: "I had help getting dressed until I learned to do it myself, my sister helped me do my hair." Deborah soon developed her own technique using her feet as hands, which has allowed her to be fiercely independent ever since: "I use my feet to open doors, reach a mug out of the cupboard, straighten my hair." But it wasn't all smooth sailing for Deborah growing up she would often "get the comments, get the stares" from other children at school something she still experiences to this day: "It's constant sometimes a kid will be like, 'Ew, what's wrong with your arms?'" And Deborah was in and out of hospital as a child too, for surgeries to shave down the bones in her arms as they regularly grew out of her skin all whilst struggling to come to terms with her birth mother's decision not to raise her: "There's times I really struggled with [the fact that] she just left me there." However, with the support of her adoptive family, Deborah grew in confidence and now has a family of her own a loving husband, Nathan, and their son, Matthew. In 2021, Matthew introduced his mum to TikTok and Deborah began posting videos showing how she does everyday things, as simple as folding clothes or cooking a meal. Soon, the comments were flooding in including some that were "weird" "hundreds of comments like 'You look like a dinosaur' or 'I thought TRex's were extinct?'" Deborah decided it was time to hit back, posting a video wearing TRex arms on the end of her fingers a video that very quickly went viral and enabled Deborah to find her voice when addressing common misconceptions: "People say what they want to say and it's up to you how you want to respond... I try to have a positive, funny outlook." And now that Deborah has built up a following online, she is determined to use her platform to ensure young people growing up with similar conditions feel represented: "Maybe one day a kid with a limb difference is going to be scrolling TikTok and be like, 'Oh, she looks like me!' Now we have a platform where we can be like, 'We're here, we're taking up space!'"

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Videographer: Jordan Halland
Producers: Kim Nguyen, Tom Buckman, Georgia Embling
Editor: Renee Wong

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