HOLLAND (WHTC) — Holland native, ability advocate and speaker Lucia Rios is writing a book and, like many creative people, she’s using social media to get support and it’s paying off.
Two months ago, she launched an indiegogo campaign to raise $5,000. With six days left, she’s raised more than 100 percent of her goal — as of Monday evening, she’d pulled 5,350. And people continue to give, either purchasing some of the incentives offered, like speaking engagements, or simply pre-orderig her book.
Rios has a social calendar that won’t quit and a wide circle of friends.
“Someone with a disability can have an active life and be happy as well,” she told WHTC matter-of-factly this week.
That’s the whole point of her as-yet-untitled memoir, which follows her mom’s decision about whether to keep Lucia, who was born with a spinal malformation called spina bifida. She did go home with her mom, to a life where she was treated like just another one of the kids in the Rios’ busy household. Spina bifida is one of the most common birth defects, Rios said.
She’s always used crutches and a wheelchair to get around. She is the first member of her family to graduate from college, earning a double major bachelor degree is journalism and comparative relgion from Western Michigan University. She started her career at the Grand Rapids Press, working part-time at Holland’s Center for Independent Living.
She’s competitive, entering a Ms. Wheelchair Michigan contest, then entering the national My American Dream contest — her dream is to write a book — which she won. The prize including a check, a computer and mentoring from a nationally known journalist. Though Rios didn’t complete the book within the year of mentoring, she’s never given up the project.
In December, she launched a fundraising campaign to get started, raising $5,000. Last month, she created the second fundraiser, which included book preorder options, along with opportunites to get an autographed copy; have her write an essay for the donor’s publication; lead a roundtable discussion on one of the topcis her books covers; or retain her for a speaking engagement.
Rios has no illusions about easy success, despite the overwhelming response to her indiegogo.com campaign. She didn’t win the Ms. Wheelchair Michigan in 2011, has not gotten every job she’s applied for and has experienced other disappointments in life. Her life is typical of a any busy 36-year-old: She works, consults, dates, travels and is active in various organizations.
Success, she said, isn’t defined by whether you’ve tried and failed in the past.
“It’s how you finish,” she said.
She said the book isn’t quite done — and won’t have a title until it is — but people can place preorders. She’s working with Holland-based Black Lake Studio & Press.
The memoir will cover her experiences growing up in Holland and coming to grips with the challenges of spina bifida and its affects on her body while she was a college student.
“My book is a book about disablity identity and maximzing your opporunities. So, I’ll be coveirng my personal story through the lense of different themes,” she said, ticking off the themes: disablity is not an identity; success is not where you start, it’s where you finish; I’m not a representative of a category; I’m not your inspirations; I’m ot angry and don’t feel sorry for myself.
“Withing the book, it’s going to be a variety of stories that fit into those themes. A lot of personal stories,” she said.
She bristles at the word “inspiration,” then explains her complicated feelings. How irritating it is for a stranger to dub her inspriational merely because she uses a wheelchair or crutch; how inspired she feels by others.
“I have a disability but I don’t see it as disabiling,” she said. “I’ve done things differently.”
She doesn’t expect to make any money off her book.
“I just want to tell the story,” she said, laughing as she adds, “If people don’t like it, that’s OK.”
Ultimately, she said, if her book helps one person, she’ll be happy.
Listen to her complete interview.
