Disability Inclusive Beauty: Meet ByStorm's Lived Experience Group
What this article covers:
- ByStorm was founded after lived experience revealed how inaccessible most beauty products are for people with disability and chronic illness
- A 25-person Lived Experience Advisory Group (LEAG) now shapes ByStorm’s products, packaging and brand decisions
- Group members share how accessible beauty supports confidence, identity, independence and participation in daily life
- ByStorm is also collaborating on world-first Occupational Therapy research exploring the therapeutic role of accessible makeup
“Being told beauty was ‘not for people like me’… taught me that beauty isn’t about perfection or concealment. It’s expression, unique identity, culture, and self-care.”
– Philippa Cooper
ByStorm began with a confronting realisation: most beauty products are designed without any real consideration of disability, chronic illness, ageing, or fluctuating capacity.
ByStorm’s Founder, Storm, was born with mild Cerebral Palsy affecting the right side of her body but never considered herself as living with a disability as she always found workarounds But that changed when she broke her dominant arm. Overnight, everyday tasks became next to impossible. Storm couldn't open a tub of mascara, let alone hold it steady enough to apply. . Storm remembers calling friends with disability and asking, “How on earth do you do your makeup?” The reply was always the same–makeup is extremely difficult to do independently. Mascara wands, brow pencils and lip gloss tubes are too often skinny, slippery and designed with the assumption of steady hands and strong grip.
Those realisations shaped ByStorm’s entire mission. If beauty is about self-expression, identity and confidence (and we know that it is), then we need accessible makeup. And to create something genuinely accessible, we need lived experience.
Skip to November 2025, less than 6 months into launch, ByStorm opened applications for a Lived Experience Advisory Group (LEAG). The response was overwhelming, beyond all of founder Storm's expectations. It took three months of interviews and deliberation to select the final group.
Now, 25 disabled, neurodivergent and/or chronically ill advocates, artists, health professionals, makeup artists and creators form the ByStorm Lived Experience Advisory Group. Importantly, every member is paid for their time and expertise.
Why accessible beauty matters
Makeup is often framed as superficial, and at the same time it’s something often expected of women and femme people–even if it’s unattainable.
Here's why accessible beauty matters to our lived experience group:
“Makeup was a way I could find myself, feel more confident, and creative, through the pain and fatigue… At some point makeup became inaccessible to me and no one around me knew how to make it accessible.” – Kat Waller
“When access barriers exist, they don’t just limit a product, they limit the ability to feel seen on equal terms.” – Rachel
“Before finding Storm's accessible beauty tools I wouldn’t wear black mascara because my grip, strength & dexterity isn’t the best… I have felt confident for the first time.” – Rae
“After my diagnosis, I had to relearn what accessibility in beauty looks like for my sensory, pain, and low-spoons days… when they are designed with accessibility in mind, we are included in both self-expression and basic daily grooming.”
– Anastasia West
Meet the Advisory Panel
Get to know the full 2026 ByStorm Lived Experience Advisory Group on our LEAG page here. Each member brings different lived experience, unique perspectives and valuable insight that will help shape the ByStorm brand and products.
More than consultation
Accessible beauty cannot be built from assumption. This panel exists to shape decisions at ByStorm, including packaging, communications, sensory considerations and future product development.
That means asking what beauty products feel out of reach, which movements are hardest, what happens to routines and rituals on a flare or fatigue day, and where more independence is needed. Those are the conversations ByStorm’s LEAG will be having.
The bigger shift in beauty
The beauty industry often celebrates diversity in campaigns while overlooking both disability inclusion, and accessibility in design.
ByStorm’s business model has disability inclusion built in. This approach has already shaped the universal grip tool.
It is also shaping world-first research. ByStorm is collaborating with Occupational Therapy students to explore the therapeutic role of accessible beauty in participation, identity and independence. Follow along with this process on ByStorm’s Instagram.
Ready to experience accessible beauty?
If you have struggled with grip, twisting, precision or hand fatigue, you deserve products that work with you. Explore our quiz to find your perfect match.
Want to claim through the NDIS? Head here to check your eligibility for claiming through the NDIS.
Accessibility Support:
We are always looking to improve our accessibility across all of our content. If you need this content in another format or there are issues with accessibility please get in touch with us: hello@bystormbeauty.com