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AIMEE MULLINS: I remember the first time I saw a pair of my legs in a museum. It was

weird.\ \

[Music]\ \

I probably shouldn't be telling you all that.\ \

[Music]\ \

As a teenager, I'm sitting there with basically the same version of what I'd always had\'97of

what most amputees have had since the 30s, basic kind of wooden legs that are y'know,

really for orthopedic shoes. Now, not as a teenager, not ever will I be wearing an orthopedic

shoe. So I was shoving this flat foot into, it was kind of like a little motorcycle boot.

Not a big heel, but probably an inch. It was pitching me a little bit forward so my knees

and my hips and my lower back were gonna take that impact, but as a teenager we do ridiculous

things for vanity and I was doing that. So I was traveling with a man who was responsible

for developing the cheetah leg. We were sitting in this airport ready to board a plane. He

looked down and said y'know, I can't believe you're doing that to your back and to your

knees. That's just\'97it's really bad and you need to just accept it. You are a double

amputee. You should accept that. And I\'97I remember being like not even knowing where

to start with my rebuttal. Uh, I have accepted it. I live it every day, but also why should

I be immune to experiencing the same thing that every other teenager is experiencing

and furthermore why is that I can go to Madame Tussaud's wax museum and see a leg that absolutely

in every way replicates a human leg but I can't have one to wear with a high heel? With

any kind of an elevated heel? And I thought, wait a second, why is there never\'97why have

I never met somebody who went to art school working in a prosthetic lab? It's this area

where it's usually\'97the role of aesthetic is abandoned. \

\ And when I say aesthetic, I'm not talking

about the need to have something that looks human, it just has to be beautiful to the

wearer and has to be something that evokes a sense of ownership and confidence. So there

is something about that very intimate relationship between us and our assistive medical devices

that needs to be honored. Whether it's your eyeglasses or your contacts, why shouldn't

they be custom? Why shouldn't they allow you to feel proud of it? Developments in the world

of prosthetics are happening in leaps and bounds. Just the other day, I got two new

sets of legs. One was the Biomes from a company called iWalk out of Massachusetts, but it

was really the sockets. It's a new kind of socket for me that completely changed my alignment.

I mean, I actually got taller and the legs weren't any taller than my old legs, but I

was almost a half inch taller simply from standing straight. For the first time in my

life, my alignment is allowing me to stand perfectly straight and perfectly still so

I'm not constantly fighting y'know and moving my muscles around to hold a stable position

which is something I just had gotten used to my entire life in the sense of I've adapted

to what didn't work and made it work and now you don't have to make it work anymore. You

can get something that fits your body properly, so I'm really curious to see as we add, continue

to add assistive medical devices to our bodies, what does that look like with our locomotion?

And y'know what are the new kinds of beautiful movements we'll come up with?\

\ I'm begging all of you to go out and subscribe

to THNKR! }