“I feel like I can be who I am”: How Carly Findlay is building her personal brand and changing how we view people with disabilities

As a writer, speaker and self-proclaimed ‘appearance activist’, Carly Findlay is building a career by striving to change the way people view people with facial differences, skin conditions, and disabilities.

In 2009, Findlay started blogging about her own experiences living with ichthyosis, a genetic condition that causes dry, red and scaly skin, and that leaves her susceptible to infection. While she had been writing professionally already, that blog marked a turning point in her career.

“That really changed the way I wrote, and my focus area then became on writing about life with ichthyosis and other people’s disability experiences,” she explains.