21-year-old New Yorker Mariah Serrano was born with a painfully twisted club foot, and had never worn high heels in her life. She’d attended her high school prom in golden trainers, insanely jealous of her friends who wore heels.
Like many other girls from New York, Mariah dreamed of a job in fashion, but it seemed like her leg-situation was going to get in the way of that too. “When I was told I’d never be able to wear high heels and I should give up my dream career, I was devastated,” she said.
So when a specialist told her in 2009 that she had another option – to have her leg amputated, she seriously considered it. “Mum was horrified but I couldn’t get the idea out of my head. I had to give it some serious thought.”
A club foot is an easily-corrected childhood condition by bracing or surgery. But Mariah endured five operations and wore leg braces all her life with no improvement. It came to a point where she was sick of the braces and longed to wear normal shoes.
Mariah was still considering the amputation when she read something that helped her make the decision. “It wasn’t until I read an article about my favorite designer Alexander McQueen, who’d made a pair of prosthetic legs for athlete Aimee Mullins that I knew what I had to do.” Mariah realized that a beautifully crafted prosthetic could look good. And at that moment, she chose to chop off her leg.
In the summer of 2009, Mariah underwent surgery to have her leg surgically removed. It wasn’t easy for her; the post-surgery complications turned out to be a nightmare. As the wound struggled to heal, she did have her moments of regret. “I wondered what on earth I had done,” she said. “I didn’t go out and didn’t want my friends to come over and see me. It was really hard.”
Eventually the wound healed well, and that winter, her family presented her with her first pair of heels – white basket woven Alice + Olivia platform wedges. Mariah was thrilled. “As I teetered around the living room wearing them, I knew I’d done the right thing,” she said.
Mariah remembers having trouble learning to walk in heels. “It was hard to get used to, but even girls without foot and leg problems have to learn to wear heels for the first time.” She soon got a hang of it though; now she owns 10 pairs of high heels.
Not long after the surgery, Mariah landed her dream job. She works as a social media manager at top fashion label Betsey Johnson. “I’ve never felt so glamorous or empowered,” she said.
