My Unexpected Life
My Unexpected Life: Finding Balance Beyond My Diagnosis is an award-winning, coming-of-age story about Jennifer Gasner’s diagnosis with Friedreich’s Ataxxia and meeting the challenges it brought through her sense of humor and determination.
Book Awards
- Honorable Mention in Biography/Autobiography category at the Hollywood Book Festival
- Notable 100 Book in the 2023 Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book Competition.
- Literary Titan Gold Book Award Winner
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I’m an ‘80s girl, diagnosed with a rare progressive disability called Friedreich’s Ataxia at 17. I challenge people to see disability as a natural thing we will all go through. Disability is not to be feared and leading a fulfilling life is possible. I speak frankly about navigating a changing body, yet infuse it with laughter. It is my hope that people will see disability as another aspect of diversity and create a more inclusive world.
“I am not a snowflake. I am not a sweet, infantilizing symbol of fragility and life. I am a strong, fierce, flawed adult woman. I plan to remain that way, in life and in death.”
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Praise
“My Unexpected Life: Finding Balance Beyond My Diagnosis” is an amazing tour de force!”
“The story [Gasner] tells is a moving and revealing one.”
“Jennifer Gasner has courageously and beautifully taken us on a journey that few have experienced. This important book delves into the inner world of living with disabilities, and it will surprise, hurt, and teach you in ways you never expected. A powerful and unforgettable story (about an incredibly gifted and amazing young woman) that will change you in all the right ways.”
“Jennifer Gasner’s My Unexpected Life: Finding Balance Beyond My Diagnosis is a powerful and extraordinary memoir of an incredible young woman, and her endeavor to recreate her self-confidence after years of denying a horrifying reality.”
“A refreshing coming-of-age memoir exploring young love, college, and careers
while navigating a progressing disability.”
“Rousing account of navigating life with Friedreich’s ataxia.”
“My Unexpected Life. . .invites readers to reflect on their actions and the imperative of cultivating a world that values and embraces the diversity of human experiences.”
“Reading Jen Gasner’s beautiful book will forever alter your ideas, positive and negative, about what it means to be ‘normal.’ With its twists, turns, crashes, and triumphs, My Unexpected Life will transform the ways in which you regard your own life and the lives of those around you.”
“When you’ve grown up in a world that devalues disability, how do you cope with a diagnosis that says you will need a wheelchair? In My Unexpected Life, DJ Jenny G recalls what might be the soundtrack of her young adult life as she details the pitfalls and triumphs she faced as a young adult while looking for a glimpse of the good life she might live. Jennifer Gasner is honest, funny, and delightfully dramatic as she takes us back to the 1990s, her days of college partying, awkward sexual tension, and angsty music.”
“Jennifer completely captures the complex game of tug-of-war we find ourselves in with the ever-changing realities of a progressive rare disease. The emotional, mental, and physical challenges are constant, yet somehow balance is found at times. And this memoir emphasizes all that makes life beautiful yet complicated. Thank you, Jen, for sharing your journey with such detail and vulnerability.”
“Overall, My Unexpected Life is a testament to the human spirit’s capacity to overcome adversity and find balance and happiness in unexpected places, and I would certainly recommend it to anyone undergoing sudden medical change who seeks to find joy and peace.”
“With a lot of 1990s nostalgia, Gasner’s writings alter the view of the general population on what it means to be ‘normal.’ As far as I am concerned, she has achieved all of it with me and opened my eyes to much, much more.”
“The honesty is refreshing, and the college experience, as it turns out, is pretty universal! It’s nice to put a smile on a story, and I am grateful that Jennifer Gasner has given us both. Very highly recommended.”
Jennifer Gasner, author of My Unexpected Life: Finding Balance Beyond My Diagnosis
“A refreshing coming-of-age memoir exploring young love, college, and careers while navigating a progressing disability.”
Blog
An exciting April—events and podcasts
Happy Spring! I have been waiting for April for a long time. I have been chosen as the Author of the Month at San Diego Central Library! The event is free! Register here. I will also be at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at the University of Southern...
Listen to this amazing discussion with Sarah about MUL and living with disability!!!
This podcast just came out today! https://www.introducingmepodcast.com/e/jennifer-disabilities-aren-t-disappointments/
What’s New?
LOTS! The following are some of the cool things I have done/accomplished in 2024 so far! First, I read an excerpt of My Unexpected Life at the San Diego Public Library's 2024 Local Author Showcase! Here's the video. [video width="360" height="640"...
Contact
Send me a message! Say hi, tell me about you. I sometimes use speech-to-text so forgive errors and any expletives that make it to print.
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