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Winnipegger's viral TikTok videos show challenges of living with a disability

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A Winnipegger is giving an inside look at the realities of day-to-day life when living with both a visible and invisible disability.

Christen Roos was born with Thrombocytopenia Absent Radius syndrome, a condition that results in short arms. She was also born with low platelets, which required 56 blood transfusions to save her life.

She said her disabilities affect nearly every facet of her daily life.

“It’s pretty basic, down to cooking and how I do my makeup,” she told CTV News Winnipeg.

“Everybody asks me how I do my nails, and when I tell them I do them myself, they’re like ‘oh wow.’ I just got to keep going and figuring out ways to make things accessible to my disability, to my short arms.”

This curiosity from able-bodied people is part of the inspiration behind Roos’ popular TikTok account @lifewithshortarms.

She launched the account in April with a video about buying a jean jacket with short arms. Slowly but surely, her videos picked up thousands of views, showing everything from cooking to shopping to doing laundry.

“By making videos on TikTok, I’m just trying to normalize having a disability, and I’m just living my life every day. I do it a bit differently, but we still continue on and figure out ways to make it short arm-friendly and easy for me to be independent,” she said.

Roos also wants to use her platform to advocate to make the city more accessible for all. She said she hopes to meet with the City of Winnipeg to discuss the importance of sidewalk snow removal.

“Snow is a big part to living in Winnipeg,” said Roos, who has lived downtown for 13 years.

“I’m hoping to move forward with the City of Winnipeg and chat more about making sure that the sidewalks are cleared off, that we have access to the skywalks downtown and just understanding where those barriers impact us so greatly when essential services are cut off to access doctors, pharmacy, and even fun things like Jets games at Canada Life Centre.”

In the meantime, Roos said TikTok is a great platform to spread awareness and promote positive conversations about disabilities.

“The more that we have these conversations and talk about how disabilities affect our everyday lives, the better that we can move forward together,” she said.

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