Watch the video of her impressive makeup skills.
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Trying to get on with even a minor disability is already a great challenge. So imagine what it must be like to have a major disability.
However, 21-year-old Danielle Bailey is not one to live by the expectations of others. Despite being a quadruple amputee, she has managed to display impressive makeup skills and apply them even without hands.
Danielle, from Otley, Leeds, was only four years old when meningitis claimed her forearms and lower legs. Earlier this year, she started showcasing her makeup tutorial videos on Facebook to show that ‘people with disabilities can achieve their dreams.’
Danielle studied beauty therapy in college and her makeup skills are all self-taught. Every week, she shares her latest makeup videos to about 55,000 viewers. These viewers live comment on her tutorials and she takes the time to speak to them. Each look can take up to two hours to create.
She said: “I started uploading the videos on social media to show everyone that I may look different to your average 21-year-old but that doesn’t make me different in other ways.
“I have always loved makeup and sharing my looks has given me a lot of confidence and my followers.
“I often get people with disabilities messaging me to say ‘thank you’ for helping them feel good about themselves.
“My videos tend to shock people as they usually assume I am incapable of doing anything without limbs and strangers in the street always come up to me and ask questions.
“If I saw me, I would probably be inquisitive too, so I don’t mind people asking however they usually ask me questions like ‘how do you go to the toilet? Or ‘how do you get dressed?’
“I am just like everyone else and I can do everything independently – it just might take me a bit longer than someone with hands and feet.
“I like proving people wrong and I am always challenging myself to try new things and step out of my comfort zone as I did by sharing the videos online.”
When not in a class, Danielle can often be found in local schools as a volunteer teaching others about body positivity.
She recently received prosthetic legs from NHS and is currently learning how to use them.
She adds: “I have been like this for most of my life, so I don’t know any different, I have always learned how to adapt.
“I am a determined person and versatile, from a young age, I never let having no lower limbs define me.
“My life was a rollercoaster growing up as I felt like I didn’t fit in, it was harder for me to socialize as I was lower down than my peers.
“But I have an amazing network of friends and family who accept me for who I am and encourage me to become the best makeup artist I can be.
“It is so important for me to school students and to educate them on how being different is a good thing and everyone is different in their own way.
“I am passionate about being a makeup artist and hope to one day make it my full-time career.”