Review of A&E’s “Born This Way” about teens with disabilities
by Katy
Last week the cable channel A&E launched a reality series called Born This Way. All six episodes of this show follow the lives of young adults who have intellectual disabilities who live in the greater Los Angeles area. I was able to get a sneak preview of this show and was absolutely thrilled to watch it.
Our daughter is a big reality TV show fan, with The Kardashians at the top of her list. Me, I’m more the Love It or List It type — I want to see creative people make old houses into new, updated spaces.
I think Born This Way will appeal to us both.
The first scene set the tone for the whole series. Two handsome young men sitting at a bar drinking beers, talking about girls. These two young men were doing what young men across the country are doing every day. It’s expected, typical. The fact that the young men have Down syndrome does not overpower their basic man-ness.
The show also captures the real push-pull between these young adults and their parents. Their parents love, support, encourage and promote their children’s abilities. They also fear for what the future holds. One of the most poignant scenes is when a daughter tells her mother that she needs to get a life of her own. It was powerful, profound and incredibly honest.
I love this show for many reasons, most importantly because it provides a venue for adults with disabilities to speak for themselves about their lives and their dreams.
Tune in tonight at 10 pm Eastern. I will be setting my DVR, and I hope you will, too. With all of us watching the current six-episode series, we can influence A&E to make an additional 6 episodes.
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July 30th, 2017 at 2:12 pm
Megan has serious delusions she thinks shes cookie lynos from a tv show, and she thinks shes a boss. Because her mother built up a business and attached her name too it and every one who is going out of their way to help her and basicly runing the business she says to the cameras they jusy my interns thats so pathetic and delusional on her part. She canr even add up simple single numbers count money or order a simple order of ham and cheese from the delli its so sad for her mother to let little miss thing run around like a agront person makeing a fool out of herself saying im a Boss. The .meaning of Boss in 2017 is something a little different than the typical definition. Kris her mother needs to put a stop her antics
March 13th, 2016 at 2:40 pm
The title of this article should be changed. None of the people on this show are teenagers; the youngest is 21, the oldest is 32. Adults with developmental disabilities are still adults.
December 16th, 2015 at 4:11 pm
It’s great that this show even talks about DS but for us it highlights what my son, 24, can’t do which appears to be a lot more than we previously thought. My family looks at Dude differently, more negatively