Inga Petry is has seriously talented toes.
The law student, who lives in Atlanta, Georgia, was born without arms. Rather than using prosthetics, she’s learned to use her feet for everything, including cooking, doing her makeup, and even playing the cello.
Inga was born in Novosibirsk in Siberia with upper limb aplasia, a condition where the arms do not form in womb.
She was adopted by an American couple, Daniel and Jennifer Petry, when she was two years old, and knows nothing about her biological parents – but imagines she would have faced a difficult life in Russia with her disability.
‘I have never met my birth parents but I know that because of the culture in Russia, I might have been sent to an asylum and the stigma would have been unbearable,’ says Inga.
‘It was better for me to be adopted.’
Daniel, an accountant, and Jennifer, a musician, raised Inga to know that her disability didn’t have to hold her back.
Jennifer even taught Inga how to play the cello with her feet.
Inga says: ‘I use my legs to write and type. I use them to eat and I also cook a lot with my feet.
‘I have wonderful friends and a wonderful boyfriend who help me when I get in over my head.
‘I have been given prosthetics and I was thankful for them, but they don’t really work for me. I have gotten along so well without them.
‘My parents taught me that there were no excuses.
‘My mum was a music teacher and she taught me how to play the cello without arms.
‘Living without arms is all I’ve ever known. I do think I had to work a little harder to get where I wanted to be.
‘I decided to move to New York City, probably not the easiest city for anyone, let alone someone without arms.
‘I ride the subway and I do fine.’
Inga is a pre-law major and hopes to become an attorney one day.
Her disability has not affected her love life and during the coronavirus she quarantined with her boyfriend of 18 months, Joseph Macuga, 22.
But Inga said she does sometimes receive nasty and highly sexual messages on social media.
‘I get over-sexualized comments and a lot of people asking if I can read,’ she explains.
‘Some people have said to me that I’m really pretty for someone who doesn’t have arms.
‘That’s supposed to be a compliment, but it doesn’t feel like a compliment.
‘I could spend the rest of my life crying that I don’t have arms but I got over that pretty quickly.’
As well as working towards being a lawyer, Inga would love to model, if only to get more diversity and representation into the world of fashion.
‘I think it would be incredible to see more women with disabilities in the modeling and fashion industry,’ she adds.
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