VIDEO: Inspiring Humans: Kiara Marshall * 2024
VIDEO: Inspiring Humans: Kiara Marshall * 2024

Kiara Marsall, who lost one of her legs as a child after being hit by a drunk driver, has become a successful model.

Kiara was living in Austin, Texas, at the time of her accident – which happened while she was outside watching a July 4 fireworks display. She was life-flighted by helicopter to a hospital in Temple, Texas, and spent 11 days in intensive care recovering from the accident. The lower part of Kiara’s right leg had been severed by the impact of the car. Although the upper half remained intact, Kiara said doctors were unable to save it and had to perform a full amputation.

Kiara, from Brooklyn in New York, lost her right leg on Independence Day 2003 while celebrating with her family. The youngster – then aged 10 – was struck by a driver who was four times overthe drink drive limit. Doctors were able to save the badly injured child’s life, but had to amputate her right leg in order to do so.

She got her first prosthetic leg the following year, and soon came to terms with her disability. Now proudly shows her artificial limb in modeling shoots, and hopes her work will help other amputees realize that there is life after losing a limb.

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Kiara celebrate beauty like a reality, not an ideal

Marshall is a social justice activist with a passion for changing how the world perceives disability. After losing her leg in a car accident at 10 years old, she recognized the importance of seeing more people like herself in marketing and started to model in the last few years. The goal is to look beyond the disability to see the full person for who they are.

Is a fashion model, casting assistant, and Disability Studies graduate student based in New York City. She lost her leg in her pre-teen years after she was hit by a drunk driver and after many years of gaining confidence in her new body, she felt inspired to break into the fashion industry. Kiara hopes the body diversity gap in the fashion industry continues to narrow, she is excited to be a small part of the change.

Kiara, what do you think about what you have achieved

She responds in an interview done by bananarepublic in the next question, What does it feel like to be seen? It’s I feel like this subject is always a little emotional to me because…so I am a Black disabled woman and those intersections… I feel like there’s a fight to be seen. And I feel like, you know, I come from my ancestors who were fighting to be seen and the disabled community is fighting to be seen and women want to be seen and heard. So, to finally feel like someone sees you is extremely emotional because it’s like, finally I’m validated. It’s just extra confirmation that you need to just, even if it’s small, just to keep pushing forward and keep trying to be seen even more and helping other people to be seen.

 

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