Being the poster child for a movement or a cause is usually a metaphor, meaning that you embody the mission of an organization. For award-winning author, educator and disabilities justice advocate Emily Rapp Black, it was literally who she was.

In 1980, at six years old Black was chosen as the poster child for the March of Dimes, because a congenital birth defect resulted in her left leg being amputated. Her latest book, the critically acclaimed, Frida Kahlo and My Left Leg, explores Black’s ideological connection with the iconic Mexican artist who suffered from polio as a child, and later a leg amputation, using a prosthetic limb.