'Push Girls' Wheel Chairs Through Life And Love

NPR

Published June 13, 2012 at 1:00 PM EDT

Tiphany Adams, Chelsie Hill, Angela Rockwood, Auti Angel and Mia Schaikewitz make up the cast of <em>Push Girls</em>. — Tiphany Adams, Chelsie Hill, Angela Rockwood, Auti Angel and Mia Schaikewitz make up the cast of *Push Girls*.

At 15, Mia Schaikewitz was a star on her high school swim team, when a blood vessel ruptured in her spine and left her paralyzed from the waist down. In 1992, Auti Angel was a professional hip hop dancer when the impact of a car crash severed her spinal cord and left her a paraplegic.

Schaikewitz and Angel are two of four friends featured on the new Sundance Channel reality show Push Girls, which hopes to defy the stereotypes of women in wheelchairs.

NPR's Neal Conan talks with Schaikewitz and Angel about the show and how they've reinvented their lives since their injuries.

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