I have a story to share about disability representation in fiction.

By now, you know I like to get out of my comfort zone. Well, I don’t always like it, but I know it’s a good practice for me.

So… I did a thing. A scary thing. I tried writing fiction and entered a writing contest. Out of 200 entries, my short story was one of 4 chosen for publication on White Crown Publishing’s website.

After I had an editor look at a piece of fiction I had written, she encouraged me to continue to write short stories and enter contests. Two days later, a writer friend shared this contest. I laughed when I saw the description. It’s not my typical genre of reading. Here’s what it said:

In this writing contest, write a short story based on one of the book cover images–there are nearly 30 to choose from! …. Princess Moments are short fiction that give readers that “ahhh” moment that royal fiction is famous for—the one where a royal steps up or accepts the proposal or finds their inner strength or wins the day or realizes their own true worth.

With a lack of disability representation in movies and books, I decided to try to weave disability into the story. But all the covers to choose from had women standing in poofy princess-y dresses or were clearly non-wheelchair-using heroines.

Except one. (Maybe two. But this one caught my eyes.)

You can read Annalee’s story in The Princess Warrior at this link. I hope she’s representing disability well.