Wuppertal – Suddenly Gina Rühl stops and pauses. She looks at a big tree that stands on the side of the road. It's a cold but sunny day, and from afar you can hear children laughing in a playground. "Yes, that's very accurate," says the 22-year-old when looking at the massive tree trunk, which is now supposed to symbolize a moment that suddenly changed Rühl's life. "I ended up wrapped around a tree like that."
Gina Rühl had a serious motorcycle accident as a passenger in 2019. She remembers the date, September 15, 2019, very well. Her pelvis was broken on both sides, her right lower leg was completely shattered. And she lost her left arm. Today she wears a prosthesis. And may soon be "".
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The story of the student from Wuppertal is one that could hardly have been told 20 or 30 years ago. Which is largely due to Rühl - and partly to the fact that a rethink has started in the former stronghold of the sexism cliché, the beauty pageants. The mode for "" has been completely turned inside out in recent years. It no longer stipulates that young women have to present themselves in front of a predominantly male jury, which then raises or lowers their thumbs based on traditional, external criteria. Now it should be about authenticity and personality. The concept of beauty is renegotiated.
The winner will be chosen on February 19th in Rust
Gina Rühl made it into the "Top 22" of the current "" year, the finale will take place on February 19 in Rust. She wrote the application when she saw that it was also about getting a message across, says Rühl during a winter walk through Wuppertal. "I have a message. I want to say something with it.”. She wants to show that you can live well even after a stroke of fate.
She's been doing this on Instagram for quite some time. There she calls herself "The One-Armed Princess". Rühl posts pictures of her scarred arm, of the prosthesis, for which she has already chosen glitter gloves. Before the walk, she uploaded a story from the car. "Hello dear ones, I have to work on my knob first," she reports.
Gina Rühl wants to serve as a role model for others
Rühl now has more than 50,000 followers and many messages in the mailbox. She realizes that she can help others with her account, she says. "The accident was not in vain if I can give something to others and serve as a role model," she says. It will help you too.
Although shortly after the accident she apparently had a remarkable composure. She's still puzzling over this to some extent. Actually, she was always "a mimosa". “I pushed myself and felt like the world was ending. I was really sorry," she says. What also sounds paradoxical is that she now feels more self-confidence with one arm than with two arms. She just knows: There are more important things in life than, for example, looking perfect in a photo.
The interview requests are piling up
Their goal is to increase visibility. Advertising, for example, in which you sometimes see a prosthesis, is not part of everyday life in Germany. Some companies have already made progress on this topic, but often it is also “diversity washing”, my Rühl. Roughly speaking, this means that advertising no longer just shows people according to a formula, but rather different body shapes - but that companies are more concerned with a good campaign than with true recognition of diversity. With "" Rühl does not see this danger after all her experience with the makers. "They want me. They don't care about the prosthesis,” she says.
But even before the finale, there is great interest in their story. The student gives interviews in series. "Recently during an interview, a woman said: I have too few hands, I have no space!", she says. "So I said: Yes, I know."
