Joanne Henry

Bio

Model: Joanne Henry
Spina Bifida

My name is JoAnne Henry. I am 20 years old, and I was born with spina bifida, which is a physical disability that means my spine was not properly developed.
I’m from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and I love music. I’ve always been in love with anything involving music. I’ve been singing my whole life. As a career, I plan on becoming a music therapist.
Currently, I’m working on playing the keyboard and then eventually learning piano. I plan on taking music therapy in a whole different direction, as being a woman with a disability. I would like people to have an open mind to seeing a person in a wheelchair doing something any other person would do.
When people think of a beautiful woman, they don’t usually visualize a woman with a disability, so for my picture, I wanted people to have an inside view of what I believe is considered beautiful despite physical disability.

“Being beautiful is knowing what you have and dealing with it with grace and confidence; it is having full faith in everything that you do and not letting things limit you nor your mindset.”