Stigmas are tough to break.
Most people are good-hearted and well-intentioned. But when it comes to trying to understand or empathize with someone who lives with something that isn’t well-understood, it can be tough.
It isn’t surprising — after all, how can you understand something if you, well, don’t understand it?
Here’s how one couple is working to change things.
Meet Shane and Hannah.
Like many other happy couples, Shane and Hannah share photos of their life together on Instagram. What makes them unique is the fact that Shane was born with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), and needs a wheelchair to get around.
Their origin story is pretty inspiring.
According to Metro , Shane was the subject of a documentary made by Rainn Wilson (Dwight from The Office !). Hannah watched the doc and decided to get in touch with Shane. They fell in love pretty quickly.
After a few years of the long-distance thing, they moved in together.
Shane had been living in Pennsylvania and Hannah was going to college in Minnesota. In an effort to close the gap and become a live-in couple, Shane moved to Minnesota to move in with Hannah.
Now living together, they went to work on changing the stigma.
Shane told Metro that people often assume Hannah is his caregiver, not his girlfriend. They launched a YouTube channel to document their life together and show the outside world what their relationship is truly like.
Their YouTube channel took off.
Called Squirmy and Grubs , it currently has over 432,000 (!) subscribers. The videos show that their life is like that of any other happy couple — full of Netflix binges and jokey conversations.
Knowledge is power.
While the glimpses into their life together are illuminating, people will always have questions. With that in mind, Shane and Hannah have hosted a few Q&A sessions for curious subscribers.
They also document their life together on Instagram.
You can find them @shaneburcaw , and while the account is named for Shane, it’s really about both of them. Shane’s description says it all: “I’m working my atrophied little butt off to make people laugh and correct society’s inaccurate understanding of disability.”
No topic is really off-limits.
Because it’s important for Shane and Hannah to help correct people’s misconceptions about living with disabilities, they aren’t afraid of answering some intimate questions — including ones about their love life.
This might be TMI, but…
In case you’re wondering, yes, Shane and Hannah have a healthy and fulfilling love life. Shane confirms that things are all good in that department and that they may even have kids someday.
As always, haters are gonna hate.
Shane’s shared a couple of nasty comments from subscribers on Instagram. Fortunately, the good-humored couple seems pretty chill about the whole thing, opting to just laugh it off and continue their mission.
Their social media presence serves multiple purposes.
They’ve both been candid about how important it is to them to help break the stigma surrounding disabilities. It’s an important mission, but their accounts are also totally uplifting — just the kind of pick-me-up that’s needed after a tough day.
Recently, the couple shared some pretty big news via their YouTube channel.
In the appropriately titled video, “I asked Hannah to marry me”, Shane reveals the intimate moment where he asked his girlfriend to become his wife, and even includes footage of the emotional proposal to show all their fans!
So how did the proposal all go down?
I’d suggest giving the video a watch if you’re curious to see the actual moment Shane asks Hannah to marry him. You can’t hear anything however, because the couple opted to keep the audio out of the clip so they can be the only ones to know the intimate and romantic details of the proposal.
But it’s still absolutely heartwarming and touching to watch Shane’s elaborate plan to surprise his fiance with a wedding ring — no small feat when Hannah virtually knows everything that’s always on Shane’s person.
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They shared the news of their engagement to their Instagram page as well.
“She said yes, and I’m now officially the happiest guy in the world,” Shane wrote in the caption, also adding “I love you” for good measure.
In the comments, fan have expressed their joy at seeing this couple become engaged and have offered their well-wishes to the soon-to-be newlyweds!
These two cuties are #relationshipgoals for sure.
It’s great to see a couple affected by these issues be so open and willing to give the world a peek into what makes them tick.
It’s definitely worth it to give Shane and Hannah a follow.
You can find them on Instagram and YouTube if you’re interested in following their day-to-day adventures. It’s a constant reminder that empathy and understanding will always triumph over the haters of the world.
