What happens when you grow up expecting to be “fixed” and later learn that your disability isn’t something to hide, but a source of insight, purpose and power?
In this episode, Kate and Jenn sit down with Anja Christoffersen, an award-winning disability advocate, social entrepreneur, and 2025 QLD Excellence in Women’s Leadership Award winner. Anja discusses her powerful story of living with a complex disability and turning that lived experience into a mission for change. Born with anatomical differences and spending the first five years of her life in hospital, she believed she would be “fixed” only to discover later that disability isn’t about being broken, it’s about navigating life differently. Anja shares her teenage years of masking, invisibility, trauma from repeated surgeries, and how that shaped her understanding of identity, equity and leadership.
She then takes us into her work: sitting on a health‑service executive board, launching a toilet‑paper startup (“Shit Happens”) to create inclusive change, and building a network of women with disabilities entrepreneurs. We explore how she defines disability today, bowel and bladder challenges, swallowing and breathing difficulties, chronic fatigue, and how she channels those realities into advocacy and economic innovation.
Tune in to hear Anja’s advice for anyone feeling stuck by their disability: “Give yourself more credit. What you do matters.” Learn how you can support disability‑led business, challenge the “inspiration porn” narrative, and engage with change on a systems level. Listen, share and subscribe, you’ll leave inspired, empowered and ready to take action.
See more from Anja:
Trigger warning: Topics include medical trauma, childhood hospitalisation, incontinence and sexual health. If you or someone you know is in distress, call Lifeline 13 11 14 (Australia).
