This week, an Ohioan is competing for a national title that celebrates the advocacy and achievement of young women in wheelchairs.
Back in March, Martinez was crowned Miss Wheelchair Ohio, a competition that’s honored the leadership of people with disabilities since 1972. It’s a pageant that focuses less on glitz and glamor and more on raising awareness on the barriers for people with disabilities.
Now, Martinez is taking her talent to the Miss Wheelchair America pageant in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she’ll share her advocacy around inclusivity in creative spaces.
If she’s crowned, she will travel the country spotlighting the therapeutic benefits of dancing for people with disabilities.
Martinez sat down with The Ohio Newsroom ahead of the national competition.
This interview has been edited lightly for brevity and clarity.
On what the Miss Wheelchair Ohio competition entailed
“It’s a two-day competition. The first round of interviews is more serious [questions] of, ‘What does this title mean to you?’ ‘What will you do with your platform?’ And then the second round of interviews is silly. Like, ‘What would you do with a million dollars if you had it?’ or ‘What is your theme song of your life?’ And then, the next day was the crowning ceremony. So, we gave a speech. [They] tallied our points of our interviews and our speech, and then whoever got the most points won.”
“While we're waiting for interviews, we have board games and questions that we would ask each other to prepare for interviews. We were laughing the entire time … and it was just so fun and so much bonding.”
On her advocacy work around the therapeutic benefits of dance
“It's so important for many reasons. Specifically for me, dance actually saved my life. I was very depressed for a very long time and the thing that kept me going forward was thinking about the next dance class, thinking about what I could do choreography-wise.”
“It also helps connect with your body … having a way to connect with your body that isn't just through pain. As someone with a disability who has gone through a lot of trauma and a lot of pain with my body, it's nice to have something that connects me to my body that is just fun and therapeutic and a way to release.”
On spotlighting disabled joy
“Disabled people deserve to be joyful. There's this stigma of disability where our whole life is just like, we're miserable and we don't have lives and we can't contribute to society. But having this platform [of Miss Wheelchair Ohio], I can speak out and be like, ‘We are contributing members of society and we can have full, beautiful, joyful lives.’ That's been the best thing about this title and this year.”
On her hopes for the national competition
“I already know I'm gonna leave with so many friends. I've connected to the [other] girls through texting and Instagram and everyone is so nice. I'm so excited to meet everybody and give them the biggest hugs. I'm hoping to leave with that bond of sisterhood. And then also I'm hoping to leave with more advocacy skills and more confidence in public speaking.”
