For Public Health student Gillian, self-advocacy is about making positive change: “I want to speak up for people in similar situations as mine.”
Gillian Backlin, NYAC member
Gillian was born with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy (CP). “I’m reliant on a wheelchair and assistance for day-to-day things,” she says. From a young age, her parents encouraged her to advocate for herself, and she feels strongly about amplifying the voices of others:
“We live in a world that doesn't always give people like me the opportunity to speak for themselves.”
Gillian joined the NYAC in 2019, after hearing about CHILD-BRIGHT from her volunteering supervisor at Sunny Hill Health Centre, BC Children's Hospital. She was delighted to find a group of people who share her interest in self-advocacy. “And we all have different lived experiences and skills,” she says. “It’s very cool to see!”
Since then, she’s been highly active within the network. In addition to providing feedback on several research projects through our Lived & Living Experience Consultation Service, Gillian joined the Knowledge Mobilization (KM) Committee and Policy Hub, as well as the Network Steering Committee. This March, she was also a panelist on a KM Family Hub webinar, “Pathways through Partnership: Knowledge Mobilization with Families of Children with Disabilities.” Currently, Gillian is a youth research partner on the CHILD-BRIGHT Social Network Analysis study, which aims to understand the social networks within and outside the network.
Living with CP comes with its share of challenges, but in Gillian’s experience, the hardest part isn't the disability itself—it’s how the outside world interacts with it. “Society isn’t set up for other abilities,” she says. For instance, navigating her studies hasn’t been straightforward: “Figuring out accommodations is a lot of work. And if the instructor doesn't want to do things differently for one student, that puts me at a disadvantage.”
Outside of school and the NYAC, Gillian loves writing, blogging, and spending time on social media. She has her own blog and online store called Spastic & Fantastic, where she opens up about her experiences to help destigmatize living with a disability.