Title:
A Rising Voice: Bella Adlah & The Power of Dance

Subtitle:
Empowering Youth: A Next Generation Leader in Education, Healthcare and Hope

Transcript:

Alycia Anderson: Welcome to Pushing Forward with Alycia, a podcast that gives disability a voice. Each week we will explore topics like confidence, ambition, resilience, and finding success against all odds. We are creating a collective community that believes that all things are possible for all people. Open hearts, clear paths.

Let’s go.

Welcome back to Pushing Forward with Alycia. I’m Alycia Anderson. Today we welcome Bella Adlah.

Bella Adlah: Hi.

Alycia Anderson: Hey Bella. Welcome to the show.

Bella Adlah: Thank you for having me.

Alycia Anderson: Oh my gosh, it’s my privilege. Thank you for your time. Bella is a 20-year-old. college sophomore.

She’s a full time wheelchair user. Her journey began after she had an HPV vaccination injury that left her. You’re not going to believe this. Unable to see, talk, eat and move. Oh, M G. Whoa. Through many months of neuro rehab, she gained a ton of ability back. Thank goodness. Now she’s an independent wheelchair user and she has rediscovered her love and passion for dance. She is all over social media, spinning her wheels and dancing like a beautiful ballerina, which I love. She’s dedicated to helping others. She’s the brightest light, sunshiny beautiful human and woman. I’m so happy that you wanted to come onto the show and share your amazing story with our community.

Bella. I know number one, a lot of the community knows who you are, so they’re going to love to hear more about your story, just like I have, but I think you’re going to help a lot of people in your age group really understand their disability, so thank you for your time. So you welcome. Okay. So where do we begin?

I was thinking that we should begin at the beginning of your journey and maybe you can talk through some of those first few months like pre post injury, how was that transition, all of that, whatever you’re comfortable with.

Bella Adlah: Yeah, so I was injured when I was 16 from the HPV vaccine. It was very slow. I started with numbness and tingling in my hands and feet, and then over six months I started having seizures, non epileptic, but they were very scary, headaches, and then I lost the ability to walk.

I looked like a snake when I walked, and then that’s when I got my diagnosis of a functional neurological disorder, which is miscommunication from my brain to my nervous system. And then after that I slowly lost the ability to do pretty much anything like you said. I couldn’t see, talk, eat, or move from my neck down for about nine months.

And I was pretty much told that I should just go into a long term facility home care and that I wouldn’t regain anything back. And I’m really thankful that I had a mom who didn’t listen to that and we fought to get me to where I am today. We came to California and I went to a neuro rehab called Reactive PT and they pretty much saved my life.

And I from four weeks of therapy, regained the move of my finger. And after that I saw hope and I saw that I could possibly regain back almost everything. And I’m so thankful that I did. I am still paralyzed, but at this point I’m just thankful to be able to talk to you today.

Alycia Anderson: Oh my gosh. So that’s incredible.

Number one, the power of a mama and your mom is strong. So your family community is very tight knit and the way that you support each other is really beautiful and we all see it when we’re around you. It’s gorgeous. It’s absolutely gorgeous. And I’ve enjoyed meeting your mom and your sister and getting to know them.

When you’re that age and that happens to you, talk about that.

Bella Adlah: It was very hard and I’m not going to lie. I did hit rock bottom for about two weeks. I cried every day, for all day, because I really couldn’t communicate my feelings and my needs for anything, and they pretty much had to do everything for me, my sister and my mom, and that was really hard, especially being an older sister to my younger sister.

But there was one day where I just let it all out to my mom and my sister, and I was like, what are we gonna do? My mom literally picked me up and put me in the shower and was like, we’re not gonna let this stop us from being you. And after that, we just went out every day and I would seize and we just went to the aquarium and we did things that I still enjoyed.

And after that I had the mindset of I’m not gonna let my physical ability stop me from still being me.

Alycia Anderson: Wow. How does that affect school? And social time and friends and what’s your advice to any of the other teenagers, twenty somethings that are very similar to your age group and are dealing with a transition or dealing with their relationship with disability, like, how does that show up?

Bella Adlah: Yeah, so I missed a year of school and that really was hard for me because I love school and I found school to be like a safe place because I could make friends and I loved theater. I was a theater kid and I still am, but I have a hard time with that relationship with theater now. I’m finding it again, but it took me a minute.

My junior year and half of my sophomore year, so I tried to do homeschooling, but because I couldn’t see or talk, it really, there really was no school for me, and when I came back home from California, they didn’t understand how to teach me, because they didn’t understand disability, and right now, I’m trying to figure out how to advocate for people with disabilities in school because we can still learn. Just because we have to learn differently doesn’t mean we can’t learn. I’m now just learning how to read again, because of my visual impairment I couldn’t read. Now I can read, so school has become easier for me, but when I couldn’t read I had to fake it till I made it, because they didn’t understand how I could read.

So school is still really hard for me, I have to do school from home because of all the accommodations that I need. But school is still possible I just needed to figure out a way for me to be able to do it.

Alycia Anderson: I think that advocacy in schools is really important. I do a lot of work with my speaking platform.

You and I should connect offline because I probably could help you with a few relationships there but I think that’s one of the most important advocacy pieces that one of the things that we can have as a disabled community is making space for students with disabilities to be fully integrated and find a place that they belong and feel comfortable.

And frankly, that people believe in what in our abilities, even if it looks a little bit different. So that’s powerful amazing. So You acquire this illness. You go to PT?

Bella Adlah: It’s called reactive PT and wellness. It’s a small neuro rehab we have out here.

Alycia Anderson: So I love that. It’s called reactive PT and wellness because what I know for sure with my own body to anything that has the term PT in it, they’re like magicians, like amazing magic body like healers. At least that’s what I found in my life that not given any medical advice, but I love that PT is wrapped into this very interesting therapy that you got that helped you start to regain the use of your body back. That’s incredible. What has been the turning point in your recovery? This sounds like a lot to overcome. It sounds like you had a really great support system with your mom. Can you talk about was there any aha moments or turning point where you’re like, okay, life is okay.

Still moving forward. Can you speak to that at all?

Bella Adlah: Yeah, I would say my first Rollettes Experience, I was, I just got my, I had a feeding tube. I just got my feeding tube out. I just learned that I had just got, we just came, we just moved here, actually and my PT was actually knew Jay, Chelsea’s husband.

And I was a dancer before, and they were like, why don’t you go to Rollettes Experience? Why don’t you go figure it? Why don’t you go try it out? I was like, okay, but I don’t dance. Let’s go figure it out. So I rolled in, no, I got outside my car and I saw five people in a wheelchair. And I was like, there’s other people out here in a wheelchair?

I literally thought, right there, I was like, what? So I got in and I met someone. And I was like, hi, I’m Bella. And right there, I met a friend. And I was like, oh, okay. And then, this carpet, okay. And I wasn’t pushing myself. And let’s just say my poor sister had to push me on carpet because I wasn’t pushing myself.

But then I looked around and saw that all these people were pushing themselves. And I was like, but why am I not pushing myself? Because all these people are independent and I’m not. So right there I was like, but I should be. So then I was like, Mom, I’m good. I’m good. But my mom was having a heart attack because I just stopped having seizures and she had no idea that I could do things on my own yet.

I was like, Mom, I’m good. Go make friends. And I started pushing myself on carpet, which if carpet is not a fun activity.

Alycia Anderson: Especially in a hotel.

Bella Adlah: In a hotel. Hotel carpet is not fun. But after that weekend, I learned how to dance again. I made friends, I danced, and I pushed myself.

All throughout the weekend and I didn’t think those things are ever possible again So I feel like right there. I left and I said, okay, I can live life again I can be a fully independent person after watching all these younger kids and older adults doing all of these independent things.

I had no idea were still possible.

Alycia Anderson: Oh So I love this story so much for so many reasons. And will you really quickly explain what the Rollettes Experience is for anybody? I talk about it multiple times on this, but just in case there’s new listeners, explain what the Rollettes Experience is.

Bella Adlah: Yes. Rollettes Experience is a I think it’s four days now four days experience where you can go and you, it’s all for women. You can go and learn how to dance. Meet a whole bunch of amazing women from little age to older age. There’s dance, there’s makeup, there’s workouts, there’s seminars, and honestly, it’s just really amazing time. If you haven’t gone, I would totally go.

Alycia Anderson: It’s a women empowerment weekend and it really is something special. And the story that you just told at the beginning of that, of you show up, you get out of your car and all of a sudden you see a bunch of other women in wheelchairs. And it’s such a break from life, right? To just be with women that are exactly like you, all different disabilities, but you feel like you blend in and that you’re one of many, not one of, few and it’s, each one of us have that exact experience that feels so amazing.

So that’s number one. And number two, like that story that you just told about your mom I was in Starbucks and I’m, that’s, I think that was one of the first times I met your mom or I had a conversation with her and she told me this story about you becoming independent at the Rollettes Experience.

And that, you went from her pushing you to rolling out of that weekend, pushing your wheelchair yourself. And it’s giving me the chills. It is, it’s such a beautiful thing. That is to gain your independence out of choice and out of learning from your peers is so cool and it’s so beautiful.

And it’s what we need from each other as a community, as women, as disabled humans. And I was honored that she shared that story with me. I’ve it’s, it stayed in the back of my mind forever. So I knew if you ever came on this show, we would be talking about it. Cause it’s really beautiful. And you know what?

You did that congratulations for, having the strength and the power within your own self to go, you know what? No, I’m doing that. Like I’ll take the hotel carpet and I’ll deal with it. Okay. You rediscovered your passion for dance.

Bella Adlah: Yes, I did.

Alycia Anderson: Talk about dance a little bit. Talk about what it means to you.

How your platform is centered around dance a little bit like talk, talk us through that.

Bella Adlah: Yeah. Before I was a pointy ballerina I danced from three to fifteen literally right before and I about you can’t really do ballet in your wheelchair. It’s all based So once I got injured I was like that’s not happening again and then I was scrolling through Instagram and then I saw these amazing women and I was like wait you can and after Rollettes Experience I was like, Okay, we can figure this out.

With my visual impairment, and I also suffer from EDS, which means my joints pop out and they dislocate, which makes dance a little bit harder, just on top of like a spinal cord injury. I had to rediscover how I could dance when my joints pop out and with my visual impairment. If you were holding up two.

I see four. And if you put your left hand up, I see your right hand. So I have to flip everything. All the time. So it can be really hard just to live. Just to go outside sometimes. Just to flip everything. So when you dance, it makes it twice as hard. Because I have to flip. So when I go, yeah. It’s really hard.

But by now I’ve figured it out. I just now know your right hand and your left hand. But when it comes to like hard choreography, I can get really hard. But that’s why I bring my sister with me. And rediscovering dance with my sister was actually a lot of fun because my sister stopped dancing as soon as I became sick.

She’s I’m not dancing without you. So now that we dance together, it’s really special because we danced before.

Alycia Anderson: If anybody doesn’t follow Bella on Instagram and your social platforms, you need to do that because the relationship between you and your sister is really special. I don’t want to cut you off, but I want you to talk about the relationship that you have with your sister.

Cause it reminds me, I have a twin sister and she’s able bodied and you two are like twins, but you’re not, you’re you could tell how close that you are. Talk about what that relationship has meant to you. Through, just your life and also the acceptance of your disability and navigating it and all of it.

Bella Adlah: My sister has been by my side since birth. I always said that my sister, that she was my child. My child. She was my baby. And then once I became disabled, I had some, not some FOMO, but like she took over my

being the older sister and it took me a minute because yeah, she had to do everything for me.

But now that I can do a lot for myself, I got to take that role back, which is really nice. But we’re so close. Like some would say too close, which I can never say we’re too close. We tell each other everything. We’ve never fought, never had a fight in my life. And It’s just so nice to just have a built in best friend.

We could tell each other way too much. And to be able to bring, to be able to just have someone who could advocate for you we just went to Disneyland for my birthday. And she becomes a whole different person when she has to advocate for you because someone was just not being respectful. And she just went at it like I’ve never seen before.

And I was like, whoa. But That’s her. That’s just her personality and I love her for that. But the person she’s become since me becoming disabled is something that I’ll cherish forever because that’s her new passion now. Like now she wants to become a physical therapist because of me. And I just love her so much.

And now that we can dance together in a new way that we both didn’t think was possible is something that I’ll cherish.

Alycia Anderson: And, I have the same relationship with my sister and I know when I was younger it, she was always by my side too and still is. And it, she was like my secret weapon. Like I wouldn’t be as afraid to try things.

I knew correct. She would have my back or she’d take care of my wheelchair or she’d, and I wanted to have as many uncomfortable conversations. . So it’s such a beautiful relationship if you’re lucky enough to have one. And if you don’t have a sister, I think finding an ally or somebody who’s your bestie that can do a similar thing for you when, in certain situations is really powerful.

Yeah. You feel safe, safer, right? Yeah. And I didn’t know you were a ballerina. Like I said, the ballerina thing. started, but ballerina and Kaylee Bays was on the show too. And I started with a quote from a ballerina because I love ballerinas so much and she reminds me of ballerina and you, that was like, I didn’t realize how I was connecting it, but I, what you are a ballerina.

Bella Adlah: I was, yes.

Alycia Anderson: You are a ballerina. I love that.

Bella Adlah: Yes. Thank you.

Alycia Anderson: Create wheelchair ballet. Like

Bella Adlah: I just went back into, the ballet space like a week ago. I tried and man was it hard, but did I have so much fun?

Alycia Anderson: That’s gonna be your thing.

Bella Adlah: Yes ,

Alycia Anderson: So Bella. You started this organization, Have Fun and Stay Strong. I believe you started it pre illness. Can you talk a little bit about what this organization is, why you did it, and how it’s translated after your illness and your healing?

Bella Adlah: Yes, so Have Fun and Stay Strong is a care package organization I started right before COVID. So I make care packages for kids in the hospital. So I woke up one morning and I looked at my mom and I said, so mom, I turned 15. I can now volunteer at hospital, but it was right for COVID. So sadly I couldn’t and, but I still wanted to volunteer at hospital, but I couldn’t so I had to figure out a way to give back to the kids because I kids is my thing. I love kids So I was looking at my sister and I said, okay, how can we do this? So I was like, okay. kids need things in the hospital now that the programs weren’t running in the hospital, so they needed gifts.

So I was like, okay why don’t I just make packages for kids? So I went to my family and I said, okay I need support. I need backup. So we started, I go, I need backup. So I started an Amazon wishlist and I was working at the time. So I took whatever money I was, I got from work and I went to Target. I went to TJ Maxx and started buying things.

And I took whatever I got from the Amazon Wishlist that my family bought and my community bought. And I just started making my packages for the kids. So I separated the packages from age. So I did 3 to 5, 6 to 8, and 9 through 12. And all the stuff that was in the package were like age appropriate. And then I just gender neutralized them.

And it was like crafts, stress toys, and stuffed animals depending on what hospital because some said no. Which, 100%. And then I just got to deliver them, which was one of my favorite things because I didn’t get to go in, but I got to see some child life specialists at Connect, which is one of my dreams is to be a child life specialist one day.

Yes. But then COVID got worse. So then I couldn’t do that anymore. But then I was like, okay, but there are still kids going into the hospital receiving treatment and outpatient treatment. So then I started reaching out to kids via social media who followed my care package page who still wanted them.

So I made individual packages and made them individualized to them specifically and what they liked and wanted, which was my favorite because I got to make them paintings and just made them for them, which, and I got to meet them sometimes, which when they lived in Massachusetts, which was a lot of fun.

But once I got sick, I had to stop, which was I think the hardest on me because that was became like my passion. And what I thought I could do is like a job which was really hard. But then once I got out here, I did it started up again for for Christmas. I got a toy drive going and I got to deliver them.

But it wasn’t as big because I don’t have a community out here as like I did at home. Because I don’t have family out here. So it was it’s harder for me out here. Which I realized. But I wanted to shift more out here. Because now I’ve found a love for dance. And I feel like I can switch it more to bring, I want to bring dance into hospitals. Because now, because when I was in the hospital, I had art therapy, I had music therapy, I had pet therapy. But there was no dance therapy. And I feel like you can do PT in the hospital, you can do OT in the hospital, but if it’s, they don’t make it fun movement, then you’re not going to enjoy it.

So I, I want to bring dance into a hospital and make movement fun. While also bringing my packages into children. If I can mix them, I feel like that would be powerful all at the same time. So that I think has, I think it’s shifted now.

Alycia Anderson: And you know what that’s a beautiful thing about being an entrepreneur and creating a business.

It does shift and it changes into and grows into other things. And what is so amazing about that is you want to bring movement and motivation into an environment where. a lot of kids probably feel like they can’t and I know for me with my disability too when I was young, my parents put me in wheelchair tennis and that taught me to be one with my chair through play and to be competitive and as strong as I could be and that’s what you’re doing with dance is giving these kids, and I’m going to use your word that you just used a little bit ago, which is hope, hope that they can move their body and move and be strong and be motivated and know that they can still have fun, I think that’s really, it’s almost better than a, like giving a physical gift is something that they’ll have forever, so that is so beautiful.

So is that your future goals? What are, what is your dreams?

Bella Adlah: That’s a great question. I think about that a lot. Because I, I say all the time dance don’t pay my bills. I want to dance and that is a great career for me. And I think that I hope one day I could do it. But I think that making an impact also is really important to me.

And I think making an impact on kids is also really important to me. Because if I knew you never know if you’re going to become disabled. And if I knew that this was going to be my path. That I wish that I would have known that all of these things for me would have been possible when I was 16.

Because I wouldn’t have gotten to the, I wouldn’t have gotten to the mental health spot that I did. Because I would have seen the impact that I could have made on myself. So I think that I would love to make an impact on the littles. And I see the impact that I make on just a couple of the littles that I’m friends with now.

And I want to make that on the littles in the future. So I think that is one of my big goals while also trying to pursue dance at the same time. So I think that bringing dance into the hospital could be one of my big goals while also, I don’t know, trying to make it in the dance industry. I think those are both two of my major goals.

Alycia Anderson: You’re on your way, sister. You’re working with the people, the top dancers, Chelsea Hill and Kaylee Bays and in our, worlds, some of the top wheelchair dancers and you’re a dancer yourself. So you’re so good just in your own way. What advice would you give to other young littles, younger people than you that are facing some of these challenging, sometimes scary medical things that come up?

Is there any advice that you could give them?

Bella Adlah: I think I would just say never give up. I think I’m just going to use that one. I think looking back on the journey that I’ve had never lose hope. Because I lost hope for a while, and you never know what you could possibly do with your life. And, yeah, just never lose hope on what your dreams could possibly be.

Because like right now, I’m living it. I’m talking with you, I can see you, I can move. And I didn’t think that could be possible. Never look, yeah, just don’t lose hope. And I think that could possibly be mine. Yeah.

Alycia Anderson: That’s beautiful. Hope has been, that word has been coming around all week with, I had another guest that was all about hope.

I think we must need it right now. So that’s pretty good. Yeah. Did we miss anything?

Bella Adlah: I don’t think so.

Alycia Anderson: No? Tell us what your, how to get in contact with you, how to find your organization, how to support you, how to donate, how to work with you.

Bella Adlah: Yeah, so my social media is, my page is Bella Adlah, which is my name, and then my organization is Have Fun Stay Strong on Instagram and on Facebook.

And then me and my sister have a TikTok page, it’s called the Dancing Duo. I see us dancing on there. Yeah.

Alycia Anderson: Okay. We have a pushing forward moment. We might have given it up already with our advice, but at the end of the show, I like to put our guests on the spot and see if you have a pushing forward moment of mantra, something you live by or something you can give a little inspiration away to our community.

Bella Adlah: Okay. I like to say, just keep swimming. That’s usually my thing. It is just keep pushing forward.

Alycia Anderson: Yes. Bella, thank you so much for coming on this show.

Bella Adlah: Thank you.

Alycia Anderson: Have so many fans with the people that are subscribing and joining us every week, so I’m so happy that you gave us some space to share your beautiful, amazing, incredible story.

Bella Adlah: Thank you.

Alycia Anderson: It needs to be in a book. So you should.

Bella Adlah: Thank you.

Alycia Anderson: Yeah. And thank you to our community for showing up again. This has been Pushing Forward with Alycia. And that is how Bella and I roll. We will see you next time.