MeiMei
The following feature is in partnership with Gigi’s Playhouse New York City. Find a Gigi’s achievement center near you at gigisplayhouse.org/locations.
MeiMei, 10, is a young hip hop dancer from New York City. She began dancing at the age of 5, and keeps her skills sharp with regular classes, as well as with daily memorizations of Just Dance choreography on Youtube. Some of her favorite songs to perform to are by singers Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars, and K-Pop group Blackpink. If not a hip hop dancer, MeiMei—short for Makayla—aspires to become a fashion designer. Her mother Cindy remarks, “We truly believe MeiMei has no limits, and that has been our mantra for her life.”
Some favorite athletic activities of Meimei’s have included swimming, basketball, bicycling, and riding her scooter. She learned to swim with an inclusive Bronx-based program called Reach Swim, and now practices at her local YMCA. At home, MeiMei can be found painting, playing with her Legos, cooking, and now baking. She’s most recently taken a liking to baking banana bread and blueberry pancakes. Some top movie picks of hers are Disney Zombies 2, Descendants, and Tangled. Another fun fact about MeiMei: she likes to practice her foreign language skills by watch movies in Spanish!
MeiMei also loves getting “glam,” Cindy says, and that she’s “obsessed with makeup.” She even got to practice both her makeup skills while walking in the Gigi’s Playhouse NYC fashion show. MeiMei’s vibrant personality is described as fierce, uninhibited, brave, and funny, and that “she is the first one to comfort a friend in need.”
When asked about what surprised Cindy about having a child with Down Syndrome, she said that it was “the amount of advocacy and perseverance it takes to be be accepted and included in society.” This feeling is not uncommon. It’s often said by members of the disability community that their greatest difficulty is not the disability itself, but the way they’re perceived and treated by the outside world. This begins in the hospital with medical professionals often offering condolences rather than congratulations upon delivering diagnoses. Many parents say that the information received there was far from the complete picture of a life touched by Down syndrome. Between that, difficulty entering the workforce, the prevalence of the “r-word,” cyberbullying, and receiving unhelpful comments—well-intentioned or not— it’s no wonder that Cindy and countless other families and self-advocates have felt this way.
Fortunately, the Down syndrome community and greater disability community offer support. “I have been so honored and humbled to meet so many different families that I would not have otherwise met if it weren't for the common thread of Down Syndrome,” Cindy says. Our hope is that with time, people will come to see that these amazing young men and women really are #morealikethandifferent, and deserve the same respect as anyone else. We know change is coming!