Who Wants Normal?
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5.0 • 4 Ratings
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- £7.99
Publisher Description
Brought to you by Penguin.
A groundbreaking memoir about what it means to be a disabled woman in Britain today from the acclaimed journalist and author, including insights and personal stories from over 50 contributors
'No one really talks about it. No one really talks about what it is to be a disabled woman, especially a young one. To go a bit mad. To experience pain or exhaustion or feel 92. To navigate all the standard parts of life - exams, careers, dating - but with a body that is different than everyone else’s.'
Part memoir, part manifesto, and full of Frances Ryan’s trademark warmth, humour and honesty (as well as hard-hitting statistics), Who Wants Normal? explores six facets of life: education, careers, body image, health, relationships and representation, as well as how to survive life's bumps in the road.
It draws on Frances’s own experience, as well as from highly personal interviews with over 50 of Britain's best known women and non-binary people with mental and physical health conditions, including Jameela Jamil, Ruth Madeley, Sophie Morgan, Rosie Jones, Fearne Cotton, Emma Barnett, Tanni Grey-Thompson, Marsha de Cordova MP, Ellie Goldstein and Katie Piper.
Who Wants Normal? lifts the lid off a subject that is too often shrouded in stereotypes and silence. It offers support, inspiration and a sense of solidarity to the 1 in 4 women with long-term health conditions – and will open the eyes of anyone wanting to better understand what life is really like with a disability.
'We all need this book' Jameela Jamil
‘A razor sharp manifesto by one of Britain's most vital voices’ Yomi Adegoke
'Exceptional' British Vogue
'Beautiful, vital and important. I loved it' Jack Thorne
'I've never related to a book more. Disabled or not, you MUST read this' Rosie Jones
'Supercharged relevance [full of] robust analysis and wry humour… readers will find here stories to inspire, enrage and encourage' Observer
© Frances Ryan 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025
Customer Reviews
So validating
After listening to this, for the first time in my nearly 50 years I feel truly validated and heard in identifying as ‘invisibly disabled’. I no longer feel a fraud, guilty, ashamed, irrelevant, useless, a failure, humiliated, rejected and worthless. I also don’t feel I ‘just have to get better’. I now realise this narrative is meaningless.
Both author and narrator have made this possible through tone, humour, describing pervasive negative treatment and attitudes of employers and British ‘health/support/education etc systems’. I used to think “I’m not ‘really’ disabled and so that’s why they are treating me with disdain because they think I am lying/mentally unhinged so I must be”. The few decent support professionals still often make me feel ‘lesser’ in other ways. This book has shown me that whether you are ‘obviously’ disabled or not, you still get treated appallingly and it’s time for us to value ourselves despite all this.
The book is so much more than that, that’s just what has stood out to me and made me write a review (which I rarely do).
A must read
Thankyou for writing - my drive to work has been an emotional one, hearing stories I have some much to relate to is both heartbreaking and heartwarming! My first meeting is at 11am I’m currently sat in the car park still listening whilst thinking can I hold off getting the wheelchair out of the chair for a few more mins just to hear alittle more.
Priceless!, important reading for allies as well
I’ve never felt so heard and represented before reading this book, to have many of my own feelings and experiences from my school days, to now as a disabled woman reflected back to me was special. It will no doubt serve as an important companion into the future, especially on those lonely days and nights.
‘Who wants normal?’ Manages to highlight the very real struggles and barriers faced by disabled women and girls without being gloomy, to remain positive and hopeful without toxic positivity, beautifully showcasing both disabled joy and hardship with an all important sense of warmth.
A big thank you to Frances for the gift of this wonderful book, and all the brilliant disabled women and non binary people who contributed.