She calls herself "Tisha UnArmed," but once you meet her it's difficult to think of her as disabled. All of the things we do with our hands every day -- from putting on makeup to driving a car -- this 25-year-old woman does with her feet. And even though she starts every one of her videos by pointing out "And I have no arms!," her cheer, determination, and sense of humor are what takes center stage.
"If you're always taking the easy way out, then you'll never learn how to do anything difficult," she told Yahoo! Shine in an interview.
"If you're always taking the easy way out, then you'll never learn how to do anything difficult," she told Yahoo! Shine in an interview.
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The oldest of five kids -- and the only one with a physical disability -- Tisha was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and grew up "a little bit everywhere," she says. Her father's family is from Jordan, and she spent a few years in the Middle East before moving back to the United States by herself when she was barely a teenager.
In Jordan, "Everyone was fine but me," she says. "There are no opportunities for a handicapped American in a third world country."
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She went through physical therapy as a child, but Tisha credits her mom with teaching her "how to do things without even thinking about them."
"She would sit me in the kitchen on the floor, and she had a special jar of beans or rice that I would play with," she remembers. "She'd open up the jar and dump it out onto the floor and I'd pick things up one by one and put them back in the jar." It was entertaining, but it also taught her how to develop the dexterity in her toes. At physical therapy, her mom insisted that Tisha learn how to do things the hard way -- to drink from a cup without using a straw, for example.
She doesn't really remember feeling frustrated by her disability while growing up. "It's a combination of my own personality, my stubbornness, and my determination to do what needs to be done. And not a lot of people have that," she told Yahoo! Shine. "I kind of feel kind of sorry for those people, because they sit home and feel sorry for themselves." When people make assumptions about what she can or can't do, "I just prove them wrong," she says. "It's educational for them."
Read More: Tisha UnArmed's Inspiring Everyday Life
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