Lolo Spencer Brings Authenticity to The Sex Lives of College Girls

July 13, 2023 9:51 AM

When Lauren “Lolo” Spencer auditioned for the role, she knew it was hers. Representation is important to Spencer, and she’s building a successful career as a disability lifestyle influencer, model, actor and content creator. “I think it’s important to share what it’s like for me, especially as a black woman with a disability. To show the world, ‘Oh. This is what it looks like.’ So they aren’t intimidated the next time they see someone else that looks like me or moves around like me. That’s my goal.”

Don’t sleep on the links to her Insta and YouTube channel in the article!

posted by Bottlecap (3 comments total)

I really enjoyed that show and excited that there's another season coming.

Lolo's character fits in well on the show. She's just another person and not a caricature as sometimes happens. I really like it when disabled characters get to just be characters, and don't have to be explained or questioned. They are who they are; no justification needed. She's not a token friend; she just lives down the hall and has her own life.
posted by hydra77 at 12:23 PM on July 13, 2023 [3 favorites]

her introduction to using a wheelchair came on her senior class graduation night at Disneyland. “My friends and I had so much fun,” says Spencer. “They were hopping on the back of the wheelchair. I’m doing doughnuts in the middle of the park.” The experience changed her perception of using a wheelchair. “‘This is helping me. This is creating freedom,’ I thought. Nobody is trippin’ off it. So, I don’t need to trip off it.”

I haven’t (yet!) watched the show but wanted to highlight this part of the interview, this is the side of mobility aids that often gets overlooked outside the disability community, whereas within it (after getting past internalised ableism) they are a means to mobility and freedom!

I have to shout out Nina Tame on Instagram for helping me get to this viewpoint previously.
posted by ellieBOA at 6:57 AM on July 14, 2023 [3 favorites]

I first encountered Lolo's fantastic acting in the 2019 indie movie, Give Me Liberty. She radiated the stern calm required to maintain one's composure when one must rely on a broken system.

In the movie, an energetic immigrant tries to juggle all the things while driving paratransit. Quoting NPR's review:

This madcap day-in-the-life indie about a medical transport driver, shot in Milwaukee with a cast of almost entirely nonprofessionals, walks a fine line between exuberant comedy and stress-inducing nightmare, yet ultimately endorses the idea that surviving another day in America is enough to feel good about.

It follows Vic (Chris Galust), the eternally put-upon driver; he's also a Russian immigrant, and therefore the nexus of a sprawling social group of other low-income Russians. Vic has a packed client list and precise time-windows to hit. But his desire for order and purpose is undermined by the chaos of life on the margins of a city, where big problems seem to keep getting stuck in tiny spaces, like the mattress he finds halfway jammed through the front door of a client's house. Well, who knows how it got there, but someone's gotta move that thing.

posted by Jesse the K at 4:20 PM on July 22, 2023