
Beautiful People
My Thirteen Truths About Disability
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $19.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Melissa Blake
-
By:
-
Melissa Blake
About this listen
Well-known disability activist and social media influencer Melissa Blake offers a frank, illuminating memoir and a call to action for disabled people and allies.
In the summer of 2019, journalist Melissa Blake penned an op-ed for CNN Opinion. A conservative pundit caught wind of it, mentioning Blake’s work in a YouTube video. What happened next is equal parts a searing view into society, how we collectively view and treat disabled people, and the making of an advocate. After a troll said that Blake should be banned from posting pictures of herself, she took to Twitter and defiantly posted three smiling selfies, all taken during a lovely vacation in the Big Apple:
I wanted desperately to clap back at these vile trolls in a way that would make a statement, not only about how our society views disabilities, but also about the toxicity of our strict and unrealistic beauty standards. Of course I knew that posting those selfies wasn't going to erase the nasty names I'd been called and, the chances were, they would never even see my tweet, but that didn't matter. I wasn't doing it for them; I was doing it for me and every single disabled person who has been bullied before, online and in real life. When people mock how I look, they're not just insulting me. They're insulting all disabled people. We're constantly told that we're repulsive and ugly and not good enough to be seen. This was me pushing back against that toxic, ableist narrative.
For the first time, I felt like I was doing something empowering, taking back my power and changing the story.
Her tweet went viral, attracting worldwide media attention and interviews with the BBC, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, PEOPLE magazine, Good Morning America and E! News.
Now, in her manifesto, Beautiful People, Blake shares her truths about disability, writing about (among other things):
- the language we use to describe disabled people
- ableism, microaggressions, and their pernicious effects
- what it's like to live in a society that not only isn't designed for you, but actively operates to render you invisible
- her struggles with self‑image and self‑acceptance
- the absence of disabled people in popular culture
- why disabled people aren't tragic heroes
Blake also tells the stories of some of the heroes of the disability rights movement in America, in doing so rescuing their incredible achievements from near total obscurity. Highlighting other disabled activists and influencers, Blake’s work is the calling card of a powerful voice—one that has sparked new different, better conversations about disability.
©2024 Melissa Blake (P)2024 Hachette GoCritic reviews
“I love this book. Melissa Blake takes us with her on her journey as a disabled person through an ableist society that seeks to erase the experiences of her community with inaccessibility, exclusion, pity, sentimentality, and, yes, cruelty. Melissa’s clarity, rigorous honesty, humanity, and delightful humor deliver her story in full. It is not only an invaluable document in the ongoing battle for disability rights, but a joy to read. Brava!”—Bradley Whitford, actor
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Dead Cat Tail Assassins
- By: P. Djèlí Clark
- Narrated by: Lynnette R. Freeman
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eveen the Eviscerator is skilled, discreet, professional, and here for your most pressing needs in the ancient city of Tal Abisi. Her guild is strong, her blades are sharp, and her rules are simple. Those sworn to the Matron of Assassins—resurrected, deadly, wiped of their memories—have only three unbreakable vows. First, the contract must be just. That’s above Eveen’s pay grade. Second, even the most powerful assassin may only kill the contracted. The third and the simplest: once you accept a job, you must carry it out.
-
-
Funnier and lighter than I expected
- By 🔥 Phx17 🔥 on 02-17-25
By: P. Djèlí Clark
-
I Was a Teenage Slasher
- By: Stephen Graham Jones
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch, Stephen Graham Jones
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1989, Lamesa, Texas. A small west Texas town driven by oil and cotton—and a place where everyone knows everyone else’s business. So it goes for Tolly Driver, a good kid with more potential than application, seventeen, and about to be cursed to kill for revenge. Here Stephen Graham Jones explores the Texas he grew up in, and shared sense of unfairness of being on the outside through the slasher horror Jones loves, but from the perspective of the killer, Tolly, writing his own autobiography. Find yourself rooting for a killer in this summer teen movie of a novel gone full blood-curdling tragic.
-
-
So much fun
- By Amber on 08-13-24
-
Daughters of Shandong
- By: Eve J. Chung
- Narrated by: Yu-Li Alice Shen
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Daughters are the Ang family’s curse. In 1948, civil war ravages the Chinese countryside, but in rural Shandong, the wealthy, landowning Angs are more concerned with their lack of an heir. Hai is the eldest of four girls and spends her days looking after her sisters. Headstrong Di, who is just a year younger, learns to hide in plain sight, and their mother—abused by the family for failing to birth a boy—finds her own small acts of rebellion in the kitchen.
-
-
Worth the time!
- By Amazon Customer on 11-09-24
By: Eve J. Chung
-
Shut Up, This Is Serious
- By: Carolina Ixta
- Narrated by: Frankie Corzo
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Belén Dolores Itzel del Toro wants the normal stuff: to experience love or maybe have a boyfriend or at least just lose her virginity. But nothing is normal in East Oakland. Her father left her family. She’s at risk of not graduating. And Leti, her super-Catholic, nerdy-ass best friend, is pregnant—by the boyfriend she hasn’t told her parents about, because he’s Black, and her parents are racist.
-
-
A novel for the Bay
- By Ellie on 01-12-24
By: Carolina Ixta
-
The Witch of Colchis
- Medea's Story
- By: Rosie Hewlett
- Narrated by: Kristin Atherton
- Length: 15 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Medea, daughter of King Aeetes of Colchis, longs for a different life. Since childhood, she has been separated from her sister, shunned by her mother, and beaten and tormented by her brother and father. All because Medea was born with a unique and seemingly dangerous talent: witchcraft. But when a dashing young hero, Jason, arrives to claim the famed Golden Fleece that her father fiercely protects, Medea sees her opportunity for escape.
-
-
A complicated villain
- By Jazzy on 01-28-25
By: Rosie Hewlett
-
Road Home
- By: Rex Ogle
- Narrated by: Ramón De Ocampo
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One hot summer afternoon, Rex Ogle’s sexuality is found out and his father gives him an ultimatum: you can be gay, or you can live here, but not both—and you have twenty-four hours to decide. Rex desperately hopes for a reprieve that doesn’t come, and the following day, he leaves. With no place to go, he drives to New Orleans, where he has the phone number of a man he met briefly and kissed once.
-
-
Wonderful Author
- By Rebecca on 01-31-25
By: Rex Ogle
-
The Dead Cat Tail Assassins
- By: P. Djèlí Clark
- Narrated by: Lynnette R. Freeman
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eveen the Eviscerator is skilled, discreet, professional, and here for your most pressing needs in the ancient city of Tal Abisi. Her guild is strong, her blades are sharp, and her rules are simple. Those sworn to the Matron of Assassins—resurrected, deadly, wiped of their memories—have only three unbreakable vows. First, the contract must be just. That’s above Eveen’s pay grade. Second, even the most powerful assassin may only kill the contracted. The third and the simplest: once you accept a job, you must carry it out.
-
-
Funnier and lighter than I expected
- By 🔥 Phx17 🔥 on 02-17-25
By: P. Djèlí Clark
-
I Was a Teenage Slasher
- By: Stephen Graham Jones
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch, Stephen Graham Jones
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1989, Lamesa, Texas. A small west Texas town driven by oil and cotton—and a place where everyone knows everyone else’s business. So it goes for Tolly Driver, a good kid with more potential than application, seventeen, and about to be cursed to kill for revenge. Here Stephen Graham Jones explores the Texas he grew up in, and shared sense of unfairness of being on the outside through the slasher horror Jones loves, but from the perspective of the killer, Tolly, writing his own autobiography. Find yourself rooting for a killer in this summer teen movie of a novel gone full blood-curdling tragic.
-
-
So much fun
- By Amber on 08-13-24
-
Daughters of Shandong
- By: Eve J. Chung
- Narrated by: Yu-Li Alice Shen
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Daughters are the Ang family’s curse. In 1948, civil war ravages the Chinese countryside, but in rural Shandong, the wealthy, landowning Angs are more concerned with their lack of an heir. Hai is the eldest of four girls and spends her days looking after her sisters. Headstrong Di, who is just a year younger, learns to hide in plain sight, and their mother—abused by the family for failing to birth a boy—finds her own small acts of rebellion in the kitchen.
-
-
Worth the time!
- By Amazon Customer on 11-09-24
By: Eve J. Chung
-
Shut Up, This Is Serious
- By: Carolina Ixta
- Narrated by: Frankie Corzo
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Belén Dolores Itzel del Toro wants the normal stuff: to experience love or maybe have a boyfriend or at least just lose her virginity. But nothing is normal in East Oakland. Her father left her family. She’s at risk of not graduating. And Leti, her super-Catholic, nerdy-ass best friend, is pregnant—by the boyfriend she hasn’t told her parents about, because he’s Black, and her parents are racist.
-
-
A novel for the Bay
- By Ellie on 01-12-24
By: Carolina Ixta
-
The Witch of Colchis
- Medea's Story
- By: Rosie Hewlett
- Narrated by: Kristin Atherton
- Length: 15 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Medea, daughter of King Aeetes of Colchis, longs for a different life. Since childhood, she has been separated from her sister, shunned by her mother, and beaten and tormented by her brother and father. All because Medea was born with a unique and seemingly dangerous talent: witchcraft. But when a dashing young hero, Jason, arrives to claim the famed Golden Fleece that her father fiercely protects, Medea sees her opportunity for escape.
-
-
A complicated villain
- By Jazzy on 01-28-25
By: Rosie Hewlett
-
Road Home
- By: Rex Ogle
- Narrated by: Ramón De Ocampo
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One hot summer afternoon, Rex Ogle’s sexuality is found out and his father gives him an ultimatum: you can be gay, or you can live here, but not both—and you have twenty-four hours to decide. Rex desperately hopes for a reprieve that doesn’t come, and the following day, he leaves. With no place to go, he drives to New Orleans, where he has the phone number of a man he met briefly and kissed once.
-
-
Wonderful Author
- By Rebecca on 01-31-25
By: Rex Ogle
thank you just thank you
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
When I reached the epilogue, I was so sad to be near the end
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A must read
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.