An Unexpected Path to Advocacy

Katherine Magnoli never set out to be an advocate, but at the age of 23 she felt called to do so. While living in South Florida, she was looking for a way to fill her days and make good use of her time. A friend suggested that she look into the Kesher School, a special education school in Miami, Florida. At first, she felt nervous, but within a day she was hooked. Her entire life changed direction and she wanted to focus on education of children with disabilities to live well-rounded lives.

Katherine is the author of Kat Girl, a series of children books taken right from her own life growing up with Spina Bifida. Katherine said “what inspired me to write my books, is was while I was there, I noticed that children, who I have grown so fond of, were actually getting bullied in a very similar way that I had gotten bullied when I was in school.” Four of the series of ten Kat Girl Adventures have been published and focus on the topics of bullying children based on disability, obesity, deafness and racism. Every Kat Girl adventure demonstrates that regardless of our differences, we all have something great to offer the world.

Today, Katherine continues her mission of advocacy. She has created activities for inclusion week and disability awareness month in 2018 with the Miami Dade School District, hosts a radio show featuring people with disabilities making changes across the country, joined the Miami Inclusion Alliance and is busy bringing her books to life on YouTube to help educate children and adults during this time of social distancing.

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