Who Wants Normal?

byFrances Ryan

Life Lessons from Disabled Women

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'No one really talks about it. No one really talks about what it is to be a disabled woman, especially a young one … To navigate all the standard parts of life - exams, careers, dating - but with a body that is different from everyone else’s.'

Almost one in four women in the UK have some sort of disability, yet this subject is too often shrouded in silence and stereotypes. Who Wants Normal? by the award-winning journalist and author Frances Ryan is a game-changing take on disability and feminism.

Part memoir, part manifesto, it explores six facets of life: education, careers, health, body image, relationships and representation, as well as how to survive life’s bumps in the road. It draws on Frances’s own experience as well as her interviews with over fifty of Britain’s best-known women and non-binary people with mental and physical health conditions, including Jameela Jamil, Sophie Morgan, Ruth Madeley, Nikki Fox, Rosie Jones, Fearne Cotton, Emma Barnett, Ellie Goldstein and Katie Piper.

Who Wants Normal? lifts the lid on and redefines what it means to be a disabled woman in Britain today. It offers support, inspiration and a sense of solidarity to the many women with disabilities and long-term health conditions – as well as opening the eyes of anyone wanting to better understand life with a disability.

A razor sharp, super-smart manifesto by one of the most vital voices in British journalism today. This guide is a crucial call to action not just for disabled women, but for everyone who wants to have a better understanding of what it means to live with a disability

Yomi Adegoke

About Frances Ryan

Frances Ryan is an award-winning journalist and author. For the last decade, she has been a columnist and reporter at the Guardian. Named Commentator of the Year 2024 by the Society of Editors, Ryan’s work has made the front pages of the New York Times, the Guardian and British Vogue. It has helped change government policy, been discussed in the House of Commons, and featured anywhere from Channel 4 News, to BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour to The World Tonight.

Her debut book, Crippled, (2019, Verso), was shortlisted for the Bread and Roses Award 2020, and made into the short drama Hen Night for the BBC in 2021. Twice highly commended at the National Press Awards, Ryan was named as one of Britain’s ‘30 exceptional women journalists’ by Women In Journalism in 2022. The same year, she became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Ryan lives in Nottingham and has a PhD in politics from the University of Nottingham.
Details
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • ISBN: 9780241629451
  • Length: 320 pages
  • Price: £11.99
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