Image: Jessica Frew via awarenessties.usg
A triple threat in the arts and entertainment industry, Rutgers pre-law student Jessica Frew is a model, actress and now published author. She published her first work, a children’s fiction piece titled “The Nonverbal Princess,” in March of last year, which can be ordered on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble.
With the release of her first book, Frew challenges assumptions surrounding disability while simultaneously representing individuals like herself in fairytales. A voice for the voiceless, “The Nonverbal Princess” strives to illustrate that “people with disabilities or differences who look or act differently are humans with emotions too, and they can do anything as everyone else can, [they] just need to work 10 times harder for it.”
Frew wanted children with disabilities to have a role model to look up to as well, which motivated her to create a nonverbal, disabled Disney-esque princess. “My goal for [‘The Nonverbal Princess’] is to pitch this fairytale to Disney to create a Disney fairy tale like Cinderella, Snow White, etc. to show kids across the globe that people with disabilities are humans with emotions too, and they can do anything just like non-disabled people can. Also, it would be a role model for kids with disabilities to see the first non-verbal disabled Disney princess to look up to.”
Maneuvering Adolescence
Before soaring to new heights, Frew was a timid child navigating school and a social life as a nonverbal girl growing up with Cerebral Palsy — a disability that occurs when the part of the brain that assists in muscle control is disrupted during development. This, in Frew’s case, resulted in limited mobility and the inability to speak verbally. Frew has used her Tobii eye gaze computer to converse since she was nine, an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device that assists in verbal communication. But first, she experienced insecurities about it.
“I never even kept my computer in my bag when I was at home,” she shared. “I didn’t even have the confidence to communicate with my computer in public, or even with my family. I just used it for school until I found the confidence.… I felt really useless and not aware of myself because of other people, so much so that I didn’t think I was worth enough to use my computer to talk to anyone.”
Already sensing a difference between herself and her peers at school, Frew only used her Tobii to speak with her best friend. People’s ignorant attitudes didn’t help, as she constantly faced people looking at her differently, talking about her and making judgments, all due to matters beyond her control. “People used to say very mean stuff right before me without realizing I could understand everything they were saying, making me feel worthless,” she shared.
All of this came to a head when her self-esteem was so low, Frew opened up about not sharing a conversation with her late father, who was terminally ill at the time.
“It didn’t matter that we had our own way of talking to each other and that he saw a lot through my eyes without using my computer. The thing I regret most in life is that I never talked to my dad on the computer. Now I’m wondering, ‘What the hell was wrong with Jessica’ and how I let that happen, even on his hospital deathbed…like, how I could let other people make me feel so useless that I couldn’t even use my computer to talk to my dying father?”
Over the years, Frew slowly rebuilt her confidence as she learned to express herself around other people. She started speaking more regularly with her school aids, her mother, cousins and her best friend again, and eventually started hanging out with a new friend who gave her the courage to speak with her computer in public — someone she credits as helping her become the person she is today.
“…One person can make a big difference in someone else’s life by being kind and treating them like a regular human being.”
A Rising Star
A lifelong passion for the silver screen would embolden Frew to step further out of her own shell as she paved her way into the arts. She always wanted to act like the people she watched on TV. Frew attributed her experience and life with CP as the reason for auditioning for roles, as she strives to create a difference in the industry for people with disabilities. Unbeknownst to Frew, one day she would land herself on the very screen she watched her comfort films and shows from her living room, starring in the 2024 horror film “Crispy” as Harmony.
“When the movie I was in [‘Crispy’] came out on Amazon Prime, and I was watching myself on my TV as the murderer, I finally realized I was making history for people with disabilities who are nonverbal with AAC devices. That was the most incredible feeling.”
Hollywood regulations are not perfect, however, and Frew has come across accessibility issues in the entertainment industry, including but not limited to non-wheelchair accessible sets and limited auditions for non-disabled roles. A common double standard in the industry sees non-disabled actors playing disabled characters, but never vice versa. She hopes that these things will change thanks to her work.
Frew, alongside her writing partner, have been co-writing on a few features and series that they have been pitching for about three years. While approval and publication can take unforeseen lengths of time, Frew is confident that once these pitches are developed into stories, they will forever alter how people view people with disabilities.
“…It is so hard to pitch things in the industry, but I believe there is timing for everything, and I have faith they will someday.”
If all that isn’t enough, Frew is also a fashion designer, collaborating with a designer to produce the first ever bandana and bib brand, designing bibs for children and adults with drool issues.
As “The Nonverbal Princess’s” synopsis reads, although the book is a fairy tale, the ending can be made real. Differences don’t separate us or define us, but with a stepping stone of awareness, Frew ensures a continuance toward acceptance, and ultimately, a universal appreciation and recognition of what makes us different from one another — something worth celebrating.
Emily Rutz
Angelina Stambouli is a third-year Communications major and Journalism minor. as1031816@wcupa.edu