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Marisa Conners has been fluent in fashion since she was about six years old, when she discovered fashion design games on the family computer and knew immediately that this was her world. Growing up in Cincinnati, Ohio, she was barely three when she first took to digital technology, and that early relationship with screens would shape everything that followed. Today, at 29 (with 30 arriving this September),
Marisa is a self-taught designer, content creator, entrepreneur, and disability advocate living with cerebral palsy. She is a full-time AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) user who communicates through her iPad, facial expressions, and gestures, and she will be the first to tell you: not speaking on your own does not mean you have nothing to say.
Her personal style is its own kind of statement. Pink and green are her signatures, the first representing beauty and femininity, the second representing Cerebral Palsy Awareness. She reaches for bold florals year-round, tropical prints near the water, animal prints in autumn, and keeps her nails in shades of pink and rose gold almost always. Her inspirations are Barbie and Elle Woods, and she has never once apologised for either. Michael Kors, Lilly Pulitzer, Chanel, Dior. She knows what she loves.
Fashion, for Marisa, is both personal pleasure and professional purpose. She designs clothes and accessories digitally, works with someone who sews her pieces to life, and shares her looks and styling perspective on social media, with Instagram being her favourite playground. She also runs Tees by Marisa, an Etsy shop selling graphic tees built around her own quotes and the kind of encouragement she wishes more people had access to. Her mission is simple: empower women, including those with disabilities, to feel included and valued.
She is also deeply invested in adaptive clothing, a space she has been thinking about since her early twenties. “Most people assume adaptive fashion is purely functional or medical-looking,” she says. “The challenge is that most clothing is not designed with different bodies or mobility needs in mind.” Her view is clear and worth repeating: accessibility is style. Magnetic closures, elastic waistbands, seated-friendly cuts are not compromises. They are smart design.
When Aariana Rose Phillip became the first wheelchair user to attend the Met Gala, Marisa watched on Instagram and felt genuinely moved. “She has spastic quadriplegia cerebral palsy like me. I have been waiting for this moment.” Visibility matters to her, both for others and, one day, for herself.
Her advice to anyone with a disability still figuring out their style is warm and practical: dress for the season, choose what makes you feel good, and swap anything with fiddly zippers or buttons for adaptive closures that actually work with your body. The philosophy she comes back to, the one she most wants readers to carry with them, is the one she lives by every day: focus on your ability, not your disability.
Find her at
marisaconnersofficial.com and @marisaconnersofficial on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
