DATING DISABILITY

“This book is pure pleasure. Emily doesn’t just tell you a story—she welcomes you into her world with such radiant honesty and wit that you forget you’re reading at all. You’re not just observing; you’re living it with her.

By the final page, one truth becomes unshakably clear: Love is your birthright.

No matter what stories you’ve told to disqualify yourself from intimacy, you can set them down. You can show up, open up, and create the wild, tender, epic love you deserve.

Emily is living proof. And through this brilliant, bold, and beautiful book, she reminds us that no matter how daunting the challenge, we never, ever give up on love.”

—LONDIN ANGEL WINTERS, coauthor of Playing With Fire: The Spiritual Path of Intimate Relationship

“Emily’s brave storytelling of her intimate dreams, crushes, and heartaches are devastatingly relatable. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry; because you’ve been there too. But it’s so much more than a story. The point of Dating Disability is to help you examine how your own physical and emotional wounds, your visible and invisible traumas, are stored in your body.”

—STEVEN HUANG, perennially disillusioned dater

“Emily is refreshingly candid and forthright as she navigates the delightful and baffling moments of moving as an atypical body through a conventional body-centric world. This book is a validating and edifying read for anyone—disabled or non-disabled—who is fearless enough to take the plunge and seek an intimate connection with another, regardless of the interpersonal roller coaster it can be. Emily’s self-aware insights are a model in resisting shame, moving at one’s own pace, and finding the opportunities for confidence-building along the way.”

—REGAN LINTON, MSW, MFA, playwright, director, and disability advocate

“In emotionally raw and candid stories that map her journey from childhood through to adulthood, Emily Goodson’s sharp, funny gaze is turned toward her own romantic life. Dating Disability is a necessary debut that speaks to everyone, while justifiably centering differently abled perspectives. Emily’s perspective on disability and dating is a much needed one, as this topic isn’t discussed as often, openly, or freely as it should be. Emily’s voice is a welcome new addition to our wider movement of advocacy.”

—JENNEH RISHE, BSN, RN, founder of The Endometriosis Coalition and author of Part of You, Not All of You

“Swipe right on Dating Disability. Emily Goodson’s moving and powerfully vulnerable memoir is unflinchingly honest and beautifully written. Prepare to fall in love with Emily and her storytelling.”

—RANDI BRAUN, Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Something Major: The New Playbook for Women at Work

“Shame thinks it keeps us safe, but it hides the things that heal us. Emily Goodson is shame’s living rebuke. Through force of personality, this book rips into shame, recounting the author’s brave journey out of physical bondage and psychological imprisonment with rare candor. Not with platitudes and a face mask, but an on-the-nose real-life story of the sexual urge put down, thwarted, and resurrected back to life.”

—MICHAEL APPLETON, senior psychotherapist in child and adult services