00:00As a woman in America, we're all fighting revolutions.
00:04Me being able to say, I look pretty today,
00:08is kind of a big deal.
00:10My name is Danielle Perez, and I'm a stand-up comedian.
00:16In 2004, I was run over by the streetcar in San Francisco.
00:22After the accident, I really made a conscious decision
00:25to just block out people looking at me
00:29or having opinions on my body
00:31and what it should look like and what it should be.
00:34I was so concerned about my weight
00:37and if I'm pretty enough and if I'm skinny enough.
00:40Now I don't have legs, and I'm in a wheelchair,
00:42and I was struggling with prosthetics.
00:44Like, that's just too many things.
00:46I just wanted to enjoy my life,
00:48and part of enjoying it is accepting my body
00:51and what it looks like.
00:57I love summer in LA.
00:59Nothing compares to summer in LA.
01:01I got in trouble, though,
01:03for throwing too many pool parties recently.
01:12I love taking selfies.
01:14I have a lot of friends that love taking selfies.
01:16I think it's so important, especially as a woman,
01:18because we're taught that beauty
01:20is the most important thing about us.
01:23But then we are also told that if we call ourselves beautiful
01:26and accept ourselves as beautiful,
01:28then we are being vain.
01:29Social media has been really important in my body acceptance.
01:33Being able to take a selfie and just say,
01:36this is how I look and I'm confident enough to show the world.
01:39I think that's so powerful.
01:45Choosing to just ignore the negative attention.
01:48It's helped me a lot with stand-up,
01:50because when I go on stage, I'm not worried about,
01:53oh, people are going to look at me.
01:55I'm worried about if they're going to think I'm funny.
01:58Please make some noise for one of my dearest friends in the world,
02:01super funny lady.
02:02Clap that for Danielle Perez for the week.
02:05I'm a woman of a certain size,
02:08wearing a sequined bodycon dress.
02:11Or I'm brave.
02:12I get it.
02:13Not to brag, but I get a lot of you-go girls from older white men
02:17when I'm rolling through the grocery store.
02:20They're not wrong with that.
02:21I do go.
02:22I go all the way to the liquor aisle to buy my bourbon.
02:25The yes, the queen, the roll, the sleigh.
02:28I appreciate that, and I take it in.
02:31But not so much the pats on the back, though,
02:34while I'm rolling through downtown LA.
02:38I like being Latina and curvy.
02:40I'm happy that I can be Latina and curvy.
02:43I have really beautiful colored skin.
02:46Those negative voices are so powerful,
02:49but that is a strength that this accident has given me,
02:54is the ability to just say,
02:56no, no more.
02:58I need to keep moving forward.
