Mother Gets Revenge After Twitter Troll Brands Her Daughter 'Defective'
By Bill Galluccio
January 31, 2018
People w/ facial deformities experience a lot of cruelty.
— Natalie Weaver (@Nataliew1020) January 21, 2018
The Hate & Stares I received when Sophia was a baby were painful & made me hide away for 7yrs.
I decided over a year ago to stand up & fight against this!
I will not be silenced by hate! Thank you for supporting us! pic.twitter.com/oJr2FgUGAL
Natalie Weaver was "absolutely horrified" after she stumbled across a photo on Twitter of her 9-year-old daughter Sophia on a poster promoting the idea of eugenics. According to Little Things, the young girl suffers from a rare brain disorder known as Rett syndrome. The condition causes slowed brain growth, breathing difficulty, impaired motor skills, and left Sophia with facial deformities.
When Sophia was born, Natalie explained, "the “hate and stares” they received were so painful that she hid away in darkness for seven years." After seven years, Natalie finally decided to take a stand against bullies who mock and shame children with disabilities.
She got to work, and helped start Advocates for Medically Fragile Kids NC, a group that works "with legislators, senators and the department of health and human services to ensure they are fully educated on the hardships and impact of having a medically fragile child."
Now, she is fighting back against online abuse, which recently became personal for her and her family. In early 2018, Natalie stumbled across an image on Twitter that featured her daughter on a poster promoting the idea of "eugenic abortions, in which the decision to abort a fetus is based on factors like sex, race, and disability."
She reported the offensive post to Twitter, but the social media company denied her request to ban the user, explaining that the post did not violate their community standards.
Natalie did not take the denial sitting down and posted about their response on her own account, asking for her followers' help in reporting the user.
“Just received an email that Twitter doesn’t think a person using my child’s image as the poster child to ABORT & to weed out all the ‘defectives’ in utero is a violation.”
That post went viral, and Twitter was forced to alter their position and suspend the user.
Natalie said that she will continue to fight for her daughter and for the rights of all people who have disabilities.
Photo: Twitter