Ali Stroker Has Complicated Feelings About Being Called ‘Inspirational’

glamour.com:

When people say Ali Stroker is “inspirational” she’s pretty sure they’re only seeing her wheelchair. Name-calling is one of the oldest power-plays in the book: It’s just as cutting in the boardroom as it was on the playground, but since it never causes physical harm, it’s easily dismissed.

And while we know that words alone can’t hurt a person—it’s the person doing the name-calling that causes harm—anyone who’s been called crazy or a slut (or stuck with any label she doesn’t identify with) understands just how damaging name-calling can be.

In , Glamour talks to some of the most interesting women we know about the role name-calling or labels played in their pasts—and how it’s shaped the women they are today.It’s one thing to be considered an inspiration for winning a Tony Award, it’s another to be put on that pedestal for just living your life. “As a child, being called inspirational … it felt like somebody wasn’t really seeing me, they were seeing my wheelchair and my disability and that I was overcoming something,” says actor Ali Stroker. “I was always wanting to be seen as me the person, not just my disability.”Stroker, who was paralyzed from the waist down in a car accident when she was 2 years old, gained recognition when she placed second in the 2012 reality competition series , earning herself the role of Ms.

Pillsbury’s fiery niece Betty on the . She’s been busy ever since, becoming the first wheelchair user to star in a Broadway musical in Deaf West Theatre’s 2015 revival of Spring Awakening before winning the Tony Award for best-featured actress in a musical for her performance as Ado Annie in the dark revival of Oklahoma!