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English teacher Beatriz Carrero lives in Zaragoza, Spain, with her husband and their four kids: Javier, Sergio, Vera and Raúl. As a teenager, Beatriz lost her right arm in an accident, and she was initially scared about what motherhood would be like with a disability. “But taking care of my children ended up being a totally intuitive, mammal thing,” she says. “Now, my kids are shocked when people ask about my prosthetic, because to them it’s totally normal!” Here, Beatriz shares five outfits she wore in a week…
Dress: Compañía Fantástica. Socks: Condor. Sneakers: Adidas.
“Most of my clothes are secondhand, since I really like vintage style. Marianne Faithfull was a goddess, and I love that 1960s London look with a mix between preppy and punk. Regarding movies, I loved all the outfits Carey Mulligan wore in An Education. And the literary character Elizabeth Bennet is an inspiration when thinking about elegance.”
Dress: Mango. Sneakers: Reebok, similar.
“I’ve always been obsessed with sneakers, and I like wearing them with dresses, especially elegant ones. When I saw this floaty, silky dress, I immediately thought how cool with would look with sneakers. I actually lent it to a friend a couple weeks ago, and she wore it to a wedding with high heels. But I personally never wear it with anything but sneakers.”
Dress: Zara, similar. Sandals: Igor.
“I lost my arm in an accident when I was 16. When I started to think about having kids, in my 20s, I was scared about being a mother with such a major disability. When I was pregnant with my first, my mom bought me gadgets and accessories that she thought would make it easier for me to take care of him as an amputee. But when he was born, it was so intuitive. It’s a paradox, but I actually think it was easier to remove all that external help and learn to trust my own body. He didn’t care about my disability. He was my baby.”
“I teach teenagers, and I always bring up my disability on the first day of school. I love talking about it with kids because they don’t feel strange asking a lot of questions. I think it helps to make them realize this is normal and okay. I tell them they can ask all the questions they want — but to try to do so that first day, because otherwise they’ll ask questions constantly and we wind up losing so much class time! They’re always curious about how I drive, how I change diapers, and especially how I do my ponytail (because I always wear one at work). It’s such an enigma to them! So I make them a deal: I tell them if they behave for the rest of the year, then on the last day of the school year I will show them how I do it. It works!”
T-shirt: Zara, similar. Shorts: Urban Outfitters, similar. Hat: Kling, similar. Sunglasses: Ray-Ban, similar. Sneakers: Converse.
“Sailor shirts are my uniform whenever we’re at the beach. They make me feel like it’s summertime year-round. We do lots of things together as a family — biking, going to museums, exploring our city. But our favorite thing to do together is eat out. We’re breakfast junkies and we’re always looking for new bakeries to get muffins, bagels and donuts.”
Overalls: Pull and Bear, similar. Long-sleeve tee: Zara, similar. Sneakers: Vans, similar. Backpack: Fjällräven. Kids’ shorts and skirt: Say Please Baby.
“I love coordinating with my children, and they go along with it! The kids are like their own little gang. They have their fights, of course, but they’re such good friends. For children’s books about disabilities, We Are All Wonders and A Different Little Doggy are great.”
Thank you so much, Beatriz!
P.S. More women share their weeks of outfits, including two podcasters and an architect in Manhattan.
(Most photos by Kike Luís for Cup of Jo; the rest courtesy of Beatriz Carrero.)
