Leading writer, disability and women’s rights advocate Hannah Diviney is continuing her call for Disney to create a princess with a disability.
Sydney-based Hannah, who is an Australian Women’s Weekly’s 2021 Women of the Future finalist, has now made a step forward and finally had a response from Disney Studios.
In an interview with The Australian Women’s Weekly, Hannah shows Disney how you can transform ableism into action with the exquisite photograph (above) showing her dressed as a princess. When The Weekly met her last year, the 22-year-old activist and writer had garnered more than 61,000 signatures for an online petition to demand Disney create a princess with a disability.
In The Australian Women’s Weekly article, Disney Studios responded to her call, saying: “We love Hannah’s passion and hear her important voice on why inclusive and representative storytelling matters.
“As storytellers at Disney, we’re committed to reflecting the incredibly rich diversity of the human experience, and in ways that inspire, open minds and hearts and bring people closer together in a world where we all belong.”
Disney is the latest of Hannah’s many wins to make the world more inclusive, particularly knowing 18% of Australians – or around one in six of us – have a disability.
When Grammy award-winning singer Lizzo used an ableist slur in her song Grrls, one tweet from Hannah saw the lyrics changed in response just two days later.
And those changes raised the bar, prompting Beyonce to remove the same from her newly released song, Renaissance.
The exclusive photos are in this month’s issue to celebrate the next wave of 2022 Women of the Future finalists, who will be announced next month.
For more stories written by Hannah Diviney for The Carousel see below:
