From being the first wheelchair user to grace the cover of Cosmopolitan to being awarded influencer of the year a whopping three times, Sophie Butler has become a leading voice in the disability community. Editor Melissa Holmes caught up with Sophie to chat about fitness, fashion and The Other Girls Club
Q: You became disabled while working out, when weights fell on to your back. How hard was it to return to the gym after your accident?
A: Obviously it wasn’t easy. The gym and fitness in general had become a safe space for me mentally, somewhere I’d go to find comfort and take control. Losing that control when the accident happened really knocked my confidence. There wasn’t a question of ‘I don’t know if I should go back’. My dad – who is one of my biggest motivators – made the journey easier. I also had powerful, very emotional therapy sessions when I was in rehab.
Q: How has your relationship with fitness changed?
A: Before I became disabled, I was more focused on changing my body because I wanted it to look a certain way. Now I really focus on what can I do to make my life easier and prepare for my future. I’m very aware that I have to stay fit and healthy, but also be strong and have good endurance to maintain the independence and lifestyle that I want as a disabled woman.
Q: You come across as very confident in your body – what are your thoughts on body positivity?
A: On a personal level I don’t feel like I align with body positivity. I’ve always been more attracted to body neutrality as a concept. I’ve been through phases in my life where I’ve been very insecure about my body, and times where I’ve been very body positive. I’m moving towards body neutrality and seeing my body more as a vehicle for the things that I want to do with my life.
Q: What advice might you give to other people, especially those who are newly disabled, about how to reach neutrality around their body image?
A: It’s really hard for disabled people in general, but I think for that first year or two, the dissonance you have from your body is not spoken about and can be really hard to navigate. I would sometimes look at myself and not recognise myself. The only advice I could offer would be to give yourself time. Like everything with becoming disabled, it’s a process. There are many things now I can sit with and I’m happy with, whereas at first, I was like ‘I’ll never accept that, I can’t see myself living that way’. Five years on, I don’t even think twice about it.
Q: Tell me more about your passion for fashion.
A: I express myself through my clothes rather than through my body and how it looks. It’s been really good for me creatively because I love dressing up and putting outfits together – it’s so much healthier to find that passion in clothing, the way you look, your outfits, and styling than it is to try and fit your body to look a certain way because you think it should. The way I see fashion is really as a form of expression. I think disabled people have such good style – part of that comes from wanting to be seen for who you are as a person, and not just your mobility aid. One of the biggest driving forces for me online is trying to encourage people to express themselves and not worry about looking silly, or thinking something is out of date or not trending. Forget all of that. When you put an outfit on, does it make you feel good? Does it make you feel confident? Fashion can be accessible. Disabled people belong in fashion and are fashionable. But you have to provide disabled people with the tools to be able to express that.
Q: You’ve built an online community, The Other Girls Club. What’s that about?
A: The Other Girls Club started as a passion project. Growing up, I went through a phase thinking I’m not like other girls. I grew up listening to my dad’s records and thinking ‘no one understands me’. It’s cringey when I look back. At uni, friends introduced me to modern pop music and I became less insufferable – thank god! So much of that is internalised misogyny, because why wouldn’t you want to be like the other girls? I actually like women, I like girlhood, I like everything that comes with that. I wanted to create a space where you can be exactly like the other girls – not gender specific, but a space where you can be exactly who or what you want to be, and chase joy and those things that are seen as cringey. There’s so much worth in fangirl culture – look at how big Taylor Swift is – and there’s clearly something there that girls find a community in. That’s what The Other Girls Club is about. We’ve hosted online and in-person events like book clubs, dance classes, and craft sessions. We did a show at Reading Festival in August, where we debuted the first episode of the podcast we’re launching at the end of this year. There’s so much I want to cover; dissecting pop culture, navigating your experience of the world, understanding social and political events. Obviously, disability will be a huge part of that as well – it’s part of every topic I talk about.