Sophie Delezio has blown up on TikTok recently, but there’s one thing she doesn’t want from her followers: their “pity” or “sympathy”.
The survivor and advocate has a cool 374K followers on Instagram and 187K followers on TikTok, but there are some common misconceptions she’s sick of hearing.
“There doesn’t have to be this idea of pitying and sympathy where it comes to someone with a disability… the whole meaning around the world ‘disabled’ is you’re not able to do things. That really affects me and a lot of people I know, because we are just as able as other people,” she tells PEDESTRIAN.TV.
“Yes, we have to go about things differently, but there are things that I can do that you might not be able to do, and vice versa. We all have our own strengths and weaknesses, regardless of our physical ability.”
She was severely injured in two separate accidents when she was a child, so Australia — and the world — have been overjoyed to see her live out her dreams since.
If you aren’t familiar with Delezio’s story, she was just 2.5 years old when a car crashed into her daycare centre in 2003. She lost her legs, her right hand, and an ear, as well as suffering third-degree burns across 85% of her body.
A second tragedy struck when Delezio was hit by another car while crossing the road three years later. She was put into a medically induced coma for 10 days to recover from injuries including a broken jaw, fractured ribs and bruising to her brain and heart. By the time she was five years old, she had undergone 31 operations. She’s now on a mission to share her story with the world.
Her resilience and bubbly personality has well and truly won Australia over, which is why she low-key broke the internet with her pregnancy announcement earlier this year. It was watched nearly 35 million times, and she’s expecting her first bub (a baby boy!) in a few weeks with fiancé Joseph Salermo.
Sophie Delezio’s baby boy will be making his way into the world very soon! (Image: Instagram @soph.delezio)
“Going through pregnancy for anyone is really tough, and I just think having a support network around you who support your decisions and support the changes that you’re going through… is the key to getting through it,” she says.
“I’ve been so lucky to have the most wonderful man by my side.”
Delezio has been a busy bee and in the past year has *checks notes* planned a wedding, bought her first home and fallen pregnant. She’s also joined DrinkWise as an ambassador for its Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) 2024 awareness campaign.
After being in and out of hospital so much as a child, Delezio tells us she met people with FASD and saw the “implications firsthand” — a key reason she’s decided to add FASD spokesperson to her lengthy CV.
“It’s something that for me was never a decision, it was never an active choice [to abstain from alcohol during pregnancy] — it was just I had to, it was a must,” she explains.
“What happened to me in my story was completely uncontrollable and there was nothing that could have been changed to have changed the outcome of my accident. But when I see things like FASD, and there is a guaranteed way to 100 per cent prevent it from happening to my unborn child, that is absolutely the decision I’m going to make.”
Along with her passion for her new role as a FASD spokesperson, Delezio is also hoping to continue to use her massive platform on social media to continue educating people about disability.
“I’m so fortunate to be in this line of work and to have this platform. Because I think at the end of the day, whether I’m spreading awareness about FASD or accessibility issues in the world… it’s education people at the end of the day,” she says.
“I think education is key to awareness and social awareness… by me explaining at least my perspective [of life], it can hopefully educate and change some people’s minds.”
It’s also such a big win to see a media personality like Delezio emerge, because let’s face it, Australia is so far behind when it comes to representation. She hopes that with enough education about disability, it’ll stop being “surprising” for followers to see her achieve milestones in her life.
“I hope that one day people don’t get so surprised by the fact that yes, I can drive. Yes, I can do this, yes I can do that. I am just as entitled to live my life as anybody else,” she says.
Sophie Delezio is open about her story online in the hopes it can help change people’s perspectives. (Image: Instagram @soph.delezio)
She reckons for structural change within the government or in the media, the key to positive change is to listen to the people it affects.
“Listen to us and take our advice, instead of getting a bunch of able-bodied people to make the decisions on our behalf,” she notes. “Really listening to what we have to say and taking that for what it is and hopefully acting on that would be a good first step.”
You can follow Sophie Delezio on TikTok @sophiedelezio and Instagram @soph.delezio.
Feature Image: Instagram @soph.delezio
The post Sophie Delezio Doesn’t Want Your ‘Pity’ Or ‘Sympathy’: ‘That Really Affects Me’ appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
