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Disability

Toddler insists she put on her own prosthetic

Her smile says it all.

toddler, prosthetic

Evie Brush is certainly "Miss Independent."

There is no more determined person in the world than a toddler, and no one will ever change my mind. When a toddler sets their mind to something, you better stay out of their way. It's cute, even when it scares you. That kind of sheer determination can be inspiring, especially when it comes from a cute-as-a-button little one. Two-year-old Evie Brush definitely fits the bill.

In a short video posted by her mom Madison "Maddie" Brush on Instagram, we can see little Evie prepping to put on her prosthetic leg all by herself for the first time. "Miss independent," her mom captioned the post. As Evie slides the first piece over her leg with ease, she is beaming with pride. You can tell this is something she has been really excited to do and she pulls it off without a hitch!


The post has more than 5,000 comments on Instagram and it's clear that her mom's followers are just as excited as she is about her accomplishment.

"Precious Evie 💝 You are a great mom, Madison!" one person wrote.

"She’s so proud of herself!! Love it," wrote another.

"She is just absolutely adorable! Her sweet smile is so infectious! What a brave, strong little girl!"

"A warrior! Sunshine! May you be blessed and happy always!"

The post was recently shared by Good News Movement, which brought in some new and equally wonderful comments.

"my husband lost his limb 2 yrs ago in a accident. I sent him this and he said “wow, now that’s some motivation for me!” Thank u for sharing ur story. She’s so brave!"

Evie was born with a limb difference, and Madison has the hashtag #limbdifferenceawareness in her bio on Instagram. According to PEOPLE, Evie was diagnosed with a congenital abnormality called oligodactyly before birth. While in utero, it was discovered that Evie would be missing a finger and some of her other limbs were affected as well. When she was born, she was missing a thumb and a toe, one of her legs was missing a calf bone (fibula) and she had a bowed shin bone (tibia), hence the need for the prosthetic. The reason seems to be fibular aplasia, tibial campomelia and oligosyndactyly (FATCO) syndrome.

Looking through the rest of Madison's Instagram, you can see that Evie doesn't let her limb differences slow her down. The little girl is seen playing in the snow with her brother, on a family vacation to Disney World, baking cookies and just being a really typical 2-year-old.

Last year, mom Madison shared another insight into life with a young child with a limb difference. One night Evie wanted her toenails painted, and that's exactly what she got!

"I put this on my stories, but I also felt it needed to be shared on my main feed!" Madison began the caption. "This is our life! It's normal, but not normal. I found myself asking if it was even ok to paint the toes of her prosthetic. So weird that I felt I needed to ask.... But I guess it's somewhat normal. How do you navigate, how do you make her feel normal, but also not invalidated. Anyway... I digress. WE PAINTED THE TOES! That is all."

It's clear that Madison isn't letting anything stand in the way of her little girl living life to the fullest, and that's amazing.

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Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash

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via Cecil Stoughton. White House Photographs. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston

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