Doctors Said I Wouldn’t Survive - Now I’m A Tik Tok Star | BORN DIFFERENT

19-YEAR-OLD Lauran Mayeaux from New Orleans, Louisiana has arthrogryposis - a condition that has left her unable to use her arms or legs. The rare disorder Lauran was born with causes abnormal fibrosis of the muscle tissue, resulting in muscle shortening and therefore affecting the joints. In Lauran’s case, this means she’s unable to use her arms and legs at all and she uses a wheelchair to get around - a chair that she steers with her mouth. Lauran told Truly: “I need help with everything, if I want to get out of bed, I need help, if I want to get dressed I need help, I took a shower this morning, someone had to help me." At birth, doctors initially told Lauran’s parents their daughter wouldn’t live through the night. Her grandmother Cecile explained: “Six weeks before she was born, they realised she wasn’t moving. After she was born they gave her a diagnosis of maybe six months, which sent everybody into a depression.” However, the 3ft 9" tall sophomore in college has defied the odds ever since; the teenager is studying mass communications and is set to have a career in social media. Lauran told Truly: “Ever since I was little, I wanted to do social media, I started making YouTube videos, they did well, but then TikTok came out and one of my videos blew up and got over a million likes.” She now has over 42k followers on TikTok and uses her social media platform for disability awareness. Lauran added: “I guess I want people to know that if they’re also disabled, that’s okay, they don’t need to feel bad about it, they aren’t an inconvenience, people love them regardless.”