Sundance Channel will premiere season two of their groundbreaking docu-series “Push Girls” on Monday, June 3with ten highly-anticipated new episodes. The show once again features the four beautiful, captivating and intelligent women audiences became enamored with last season, as they continue to challenge society’s perception of what life is really like in a wheelchair.
“Once in a great while a show comes along to remind us that reality television need not be defined by The Real Housewives or Jersey Shore. That, in fact, there are wonderful and valuable things the genre can do that scripted shows simply cannot. PUSH GIRLS is one of those shows.”
-Los Angeles Times
Sundance Channel announced today that their original and critically-acclaimed docu-series PUSH GIRLS has begun production in Los Angeles for a 10-episode second season set to air in 2013. PUSH GIRLS, touted as “captivating” by Time Magazine’s James Poniewozik, was a conversation starter last June when it launched with widespread acclaim from both viewers and critics alike, for the genuine and ground-breaking depiction of four beautiful, intelligent and inspiring women who use wheelchairs.
What a wild ride it’s been this season on PUSH GIRLS, and who else is super excited about the season two renewal? We hope that you laughed, cried, learned and loved with us over the course of this season, and along the way, maybe some of your ideas about living with disability were broken down, too. What stands out about Auti, Angela, Tiphany, Mia and Chelsie isn’t their chairs: It’s their personalities and the strong bonds among them.
Tonight on PUSH GIRLS, you’ll get a glimpse of a major ongoing accessibility problem: people with disabilities trying to hail cabs in the Big Apple. It’s an uphill battle — New York’s taxi problem is notorious among disabled transit users — and some people are working to change that. Activists in New York have been fighting for decades now for accessible taxis, through negotiations, court cases and protests.
We got to see not one but two of our fabulous strong women pushing for the finish line this week, bringing some serious push girl spirit to competition against able-bodied athletes in the pool and on a 5k marathon. Mia and Tiphany both had their ups and downs, but they accomplished something important: They proved to themselves that they had what it took to finish. And sometimes, proving something to yourself is the hardest thing to do.
Physical fitness has been a thread for Mia and Tiphany throughout this season; remember how we saw them working out in the very first episode? These ladies are seriously ripped; you have to be to push a manual chair, especially in the rough environment of the Los Angeles streets. It’s not surprising to see Tiphany astounding an able-bodied fitness class with her muscular upper body or Mia yanking the weight of herself and her chair up over a curb one-handed.
Sundance Channel is pleased to announce that the widely acclaimed PUSH GIRLS — which airs Mondays at 10P — has been renewed for a second season, to premiere in 2013. PUSH GIRLS follows the lives of five beautiful, intelligent and inspiring women as they challenge society’s perception of what life is like in a wheelchair. The Los Angeles Times said, “Once in a great while a show comes along to remind us that there are wonderful and valuable things the reality genre can do that scripted shows simply cannot. PUSH GIRLS is one of those shows.”
First there was slow food. Now there’s slow parenting. Susan Sachs Lipman decided she was fed up with the hectic life of modern-day parenting, and it was time for her and her family to take a time out. In a world with a gajillion parenting styles, hers stands out as both revolutionary and a return to old ways: To build family relationships, try spending time as a family. I’ve got parenting on the brain this week, and you’ll see why when you tune in for tonight’s PUSH GIRLS, so I was particularly interested to learn more about Lipman’s approach.
What a week on PUSH GIRLS! We got to see Chelsie hit the stage with her dad, and Mia finally moved out of her antiquated apartment and into some sweet new digs. But, as most of us know, the problem with moving is, well, the moving part. Everyone hates moving, because it’s a huge pain in the patootie, whether you’re seated or standing. But, as Mia herself reminded us, eventually everyone has to move on, and when you change something radical in your life, it can open up something new, too.
You’ve seen the fabulous push girls onscreen, but did you know you can read them in print, too? Mia, Auti, Angela and Tiphany have been talking up a storm over on The Huffington Post, with a lot of great insights and expansions on what you see on PUSH GIRLS. If you haven’t yet checked them out on HuffPo, here’s a sample of what they have to say…
“Breaking the Ice” was a breath of fun in the midst of my long, hot summer. I started grinning almost as soon as the girls began pouring off the ski lift and I just couldn’t stop until the end of the episode. There’s something transcendent about watching people push their comfort zones and have fun, and in the case of the push girls, it was wonderful to see them doing something as a group that felt so freeing for all of them. The push girls never stop challenging themselves, and they’re stronger when they do it together.
There’s one thing you can say for sure about the push girls: They’re all strong women, and they’re not afraid to show it. In a world where women are supposed to be meek — especially women who use wheelchairs for mobility — Auti, Angela, Tiphany, Mia and Chelsie are not afraid to go up against the establishment. This week, on “Drama Town,” we saw more of their independent spirits and were reminded of the tensions that sometimes arise in everyone’s life. The hallmark of a push girl is the ability to work through that drama, though, and that’s just what they did.
This week on PUSH GIRLS, “Freaky Deaky” showed us some hazards of dating while you’re a wheelchair user, while still letting us see the girls having fun. As Auti, whom I’ve come to think of as the mother hen, reminded us, there’s an element of danger involved in going on a date when you have paralysis, because it involves a deep level of trust very early in your relationship. Tiphany related a scary story about being tipped out of her chair, underscoring the vulnerability wheelchair users experience in intimate relationships.
Michele Kaplan wants us to mind the gap. The space between a subway car and the platform might not seem like a big deal if you’re bipedal, but it can pose a safety hazard if you’re using a wheelchair, cane or walker. Michele got fed up on July 10 when she tried to board a train in a supposedly accessible station and her powerchair got stuck in the gap. She was forced to rely on “two burly-looking passengers” to get her chair out of the doors and onto the train. When she got home, she decided to fight back. Michele started up a Tumblr and set up a petition, and she’s been putting the word out ever since.
A very emotional PUSH GIRLS this week on “In the Fast Lane,” as we saw Tiphany talking about her past and returning to the site of her car accident 10 years after the fact. She might have been declared dead on the scene, but she rolled confidently along the side of the highway with her family to confront the reality that her accident affected more people than just her: “My accident didn’t just happen to me. It affected a lot of people.”
Once you start looking, you see Push Girls everywhere. That’s what we learned when we asked fans on the PUSH GIRLS Facebook page, “Who’s your Push Girl?” After 215 nominees (and counting), we can honestly say that push girls are young and old, athletes and artists, students and teachers, and everything in between. There’s Brittney Kitchens, whose awesome tattoo sums up her attitude: “I don’t let my disability get in the way of my happiness… and like my tattoo says, ‘Life rolls on.’ “
This week’s Chelsie-centric episode was an intimate and revealing look into the difficult adjustment period that comes with newly acquired disability. Chelsie is lucky to have four fabulous mentors, but she struggles with the changes going on in her life and in her body, and it was really refreshing to get an honest look at that. She was performing in front of her family for the first time, which was understandably nerve-wracking, and things didn’t go quite according to plan, but she held her head up high and got back out on the dance floor, which is hard for any of us to do when we feel like we’ve failed.
We’ve already seen wheelchair dance on PUSH GIRLS (and we’ll be seeing more tonight), but some of you may be experiencing this art form for the first time on the show. If you want to see even more, you’re in luck, because there’s a thriving worldwide wheelchair dance community and chances are you can find a performance near you if you live in an urban area. Attending a live show can be quite a thrill, but since I can’t drag you all to a performance, we’ll do our best with the two-dimensional version.
This week on PUSH GIRLS, we got a very intimate look at the different ways in which people react to disability. There was a stark contrast not just between Chelsie, who’s still adjusting to her paralysis, but between Mia, Auti, Tiphany, and Angela, and it was fascinating to see the women getting “Fired Up,” in an episode that got very emotional. It’s hard to predict your reaction to a major life change, but I liked the takeaway that Mia left us with: You can start again at any age.
Girls, are you ready to change the world? No, really. You can — and you’ll hardly be alone. Just take a look at the Hey Girl, What Have You Done Lately? Tumblr for inspiration. There’s Wonder Woman, that Amazonian warrior princess who always gets the bad guys — and can hold her own in the über-male world of superheroes. (Not to mention Lynda Carter, the strong and beautiful actress who played her.) And let’s not forget Julia Child, who singlehandedly elevated the level of American cuisine while inventing the concept of celebrity-chef TV star.
Famous people aren’t all bad. In fact, some of them, despite their shortage of time and debilitating desire to be caught on film doing weird, immoral things, actually dedicate their time to helping other people instead of themselves. The trend of celebrities getting involved in charity work seemed to spin out of control once Angelina became such a saint, and now it seems like it’s another Hollywood trend to get involved in making the world a better place. But what can we say? If they’re doing it, they’re doing it – who cares if it’s all for good press?
Lots of relationship drama on PUSH GIRLS this week, from Angela and Dustin having a serious conversation about the direction of their relationship to Mia and Tiphany going on a speed dating adventure. All the girls are at different phases, relationshipwise; I love watching Auti and Erik’s incredibly strong, loving marriage as much as I enjoy seeing Tiphany explore the relationship world because she’s still searching for what, and who, she wants.
In a busy world, it can be tough to make time to find a partner. That’s why some genius invented speed dating, and some people are really pushing the limits when it comes to creativity in that department. Goodbye gongs, hello rare culinary ingredients. This is speed dating for the 21st century.
10. Edwardian-themed Football Speed Dating
Say that ten times fast, and pick a suitable pseudonym so you can prepare to play table football with a random mate, all while living in the Golden Age (without the hideously restrictive bathing suits). Beware: Small talk is strictly banned, but at least you can work out nerves with your competitive streak.
Check out the “Hey Girl, What Have You Done Lately?” Tumblr for some awesome push girls throughout the ages, from Joan of Arc to Hillary Clinton. Each of them has done something fantastic, and wants to know what you have done lately. If you need a lesson in taking life by the horns and fighting prejudice to rise to one of the highest offices in the land, visit Shirley Chisolm, first Black woman elected to Congress. Maybe you’d like to learn more about modern activists like Kasha Nabagasera, who’s protecting LGBQT Ugandans from execution. Or maybe you just want to follow to get your daily fix of amazing ladies.
In this, the year of the War on Women, it seems important to take a look back on all the hard-won battles women have poured their blood, sweat and tears into over the past 150 years. Seeing how far we’ve come makes it hard to understand why there are so many people across the country right now working to roll back our reproductive rights, restrict our access to birth control, and allow employers to pay us less than men. It’s like they want to erase the ’70s! Let this top 10 list light a fire under your ass so you make sure that doesn’t happen this election year.
“Hope It’s Not Too Late” came with some real talk on relationships and abortion. It was also a very intimate episode for us. Auti really put herself out there with some personal scenes this week where she took us to the fertility clinic (and into the ob-gyn exam room, yikes!) to get evaluated as she and Eric start working on a baby. And she revealed that she had an abortion in her youth, shortly after her accident.