Attitudelive have asked us to share some information about one of their latest videos. This time it looks at Noel Ratapu who is a teenager living with Muscular Atrophy who uses photography to express herself and accept life with a disability.

“It’s part of me but I don’t like being known as the girl in the wheelchair… I don’t mind being seen as different from the others – different is unique and if we were all the same that would just be boring.”

Noel Ratapu was born with a condition that means she is gradually losing muscle strength and mobility. By the age of 11 she needed to use a wheelchair… as her body weakened, her anxieties grew. Now 15, Noel has found her voice and identity in the lens of the camera as she accepts life with a disability and documents her journey through photography.

“A lot of my photos have sides of me. If I’m depressed I make it black and white with different lighting and layers in the background. If I’m happy then more colourful and brightness to my face.”

You can see more of Noel’s work here. An online exhibition of her work opens on 15th August 2014. – See the video at at Attitudelives’s website.