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Passing the Test
In seventh grade, Brittany Blythe dreamed of being a cheerleader. Her school's coaches were less than enthusiastic. "They said, 'I don't know how you'll be able to do it,' " she recalls. " 'You won't be able to do the stunts.' "
But Brittany, now a junior at Strath Haven High School near Philadelphia, persisted. And when the junior varsity cheerleaders won a tournament last year, she was right there, dancing and cheering with the rest of the squad.
Not bad for someone whose legs were amputated below the knee when she was two years old.
Brittany, 18, was born without shinbones—"just blood and muscle tissue," as she puts it. When she tried to walk, her legs twisted and buckled. After the amputation, she adapted quickly. "From day one, I basically jumped up and wanted to do everything," she says. Prosthetic legs allowed her to move around upright, but too slowly to keep up with her friends. Brittany's solution: take the legs off and walk on her knees—something she still does when safety and comfort permit.
She's rarely daunted. Other children teased her through the years, especially in junior high school, but she says the challenge only made her stronger. Now she's trying to convince her coaches to let her shed the prostheses and be a flyer, the cheerleader who's thrown in the air and caught by her teammates.
Brittany doesn't think her problems are any more difficult than the next person's. "My disability was the first thing I had to get through, and that's going to prepare me for the future," she says. "It's all just a test: If someone throws you a curveball, what are you going to do?"
-Tara Conry
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