Ballerina born without both arms is making her mark on the world with her talent and charisma

It is a tedious task to be a ballerina as they have to learn how to balance their entire body weight on their toes. It is a graceful and pleasing dance form with a wide audience across the world. Moreover, it is increasingly becoming more inclusive due to ballerinas like Vitória Bueno. The 18-year-old dancer from Brazil was born without both arms, but nothing stopped her ever from pursuing a career in ballet, as per Inspire More. 

She has also grown to be a powerful influencer on social media, where she demonstrates her deft footwork. She now has more than 400,000 Instagram followers, and in 2021, she won the Golden Buzzer at the "Germany's Got Talent" Season 15 auditions. Although she placed second in her first "Got Talent" competition, her performance qualified her to compete in a subsequent installment of the show called "America's Got Talent: All-Stars." The episode featuring Vitória aired in January 2023 and she never ceases to amaze us with her grace and abilities both on and off stage.

Vitória displayed her trademark lighter-than-air dancing prowess during her performance, interspersed with brief displays of incredible flexibility. She flitted across the platform with her customary sparkling smile, radiating beams of pure delight the whole time. Simon Cowell, Heidi Klum and Howie Mandel, the judges, were all gushing about her performance once she completed it. Cowell said, "I believe the sign of a star is someone who perseveres, and then when they’re on stage, lights up the stage. And you have both of those things. You have this glow about you.”

When it was time for the judges to pick between this gifted young dancer and the other competitors, they had their job cut out for them. According to the New York Post, the ballerina began ballet on the recommendation of her physical therapist. She started taking dance lessons when she was barely 5 years old, and dance has transformed her life, as per Hollywood Life. Victoria said, "For me, arms, they’re just a detail. I follow with my eyes as if they were there."  

Disability doesn't mean that any individual should limit themselves in any way. Mallory Weggemann, an American Paralympic swimmer, is proving that as she is on her way to having her first child. Weggemann, 33, and her husband, Jay Snyder, had a prolonged IVF procedure while adjusting to Snyder's infertility due to a male factor and Weggemann's Paralympic swimming career. She shared, "Jay was adamant that we have the conversation around male infertility. Society needed to see a couple who said, 'Actually, it's the non-disabled spouse that has the fertility struggles."

Weggemann and Snyder, who had had three operations, more than 440 injections, two stim cycles and one unsuccessful transfer, announced in August that their second egg transfer had been successful and that they would be having a baby in March. She said, "So often we form our perceptions of what we think is possible based on what we see emulated in the world around us." In addition to swimming at the 2022 US Para Swimming Nationals in December while 26 weeks pregnant, Weggemann has been defying the odds.