Constable: Wheaton woman puts the 'able' in fashionable

At 13, Molly Farrell played every sport she could, did well in school, and had a desire to dress well.

“As a young kid, I always loved fashion and shopping and clothes,” says Farrell, now a 31-year-old speech-language pathologist at Army Trail Elementary School in Addison. Her life has changed dramatically since she was a 7th-grader, but her interest in fashion never waned.

“I'm a true believer in when you look good, you feel good,” says Farrell, who now has a side gig as a fashionista. The all.fashion.able account she started on Instagram lives by the slogan, “Everyone is fashion-abled!” It's too bad her Instagram posts weren't around when she was a kid who suddenly found her wardrobe limited to baggy pants fastened with a drawstring.

“As a 13-year-old, that's not what I wanted to wear,” remembers Farrell, whose fashion worries were more dramatic than her typical teenage girl peers. “You definitely feel you are not ‘cool' anymore. Luckily, my parents were so supportive and helped me find clothes that would fit my needs.”

Her needs changed because of what happened on June 28, 2002, at a Naperville swimming pool.

“At swim team practice that morning, my team was practicing starts off the blocks and something went wrong during one of my dives,” Farrell says. “I hit the bottom of the pool and became instantly paralyzed from my shoulders down. I remember floating at the bottom of the pool, looking up through the water and hoping someone would save me.”

Pulled from the pool, she was taken by ambulance to nearby Edward Hospital, and then by helicopter to Loyola University Medical Center, where she had surgery to implant rods and a spinal support known as a “bird cage.” She spent 17 days in the intensive care unit.

“I had no idea what a spinal cord injury was. I had never heard of it until it happened to me,” says Farrell, who was more focused on an important swim meet coming up in a couple of weeks. “I remember thinking I'll be fine. I'll be swimming. I'll be competing.”

The news was far worse than not being ready for a swim meet.

“The doctors told me I had less than a 1% chance of moving my arms or being able to walk again,” says Farrell, who also suffered collapsed lungs and pneumonia and needed a tracheostomy to breathe and a feeding tube. Her parents, Nancy and Mike, older sister Colleen, and older brother, Sean, offered help and support.

She began to regain use of her arms and hands, and still remembers her biggest breakthrough during therapy a couple of months after her accident.

“I was able to move my big toe one day in August,” she remembers. That earned her a spot in a research program with activity-based therapy. By the end of the year, she was able to donate her wheelchair to charity. She used crutches to walk into St. Joan of Arc in Lisle for the second semester of her 7th-grade year.

An active volunteer with the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, Farrell became a frequent speaker at fundraisers and appeared on the “Oprah Winfrey Show” and the “Today Show.” At St. Francis High School, she was named to the 2007-2008 Daily Herald Leadership Team. She went on to get her bachelor's degree from St. Mary College in South Bend, Indiana, before getting her master's degree at Northern Illinois University and starting her career as a speech-language pathologist.

“In college, I followed a lot of fashion blogs online. I realized there wasn't anyone like me who did a fashion blog,” says Farrell, who remembers how difficult it was to find clothes as she worked to regain use of her arms. “I wasn't able to button a shirt or pull up my pants. Zippers were hard for me.”

Many of the clothes that were accessible just didn't fit her personality.

“When they hear ‘adaptive clothing,' they think of the elderly,” says Farrell, who has seen a lot of fashion changes since middle school. “There's a lot more to adaptive clothes. Slowly, but surely, it's happening.”

On her Instagram page, which she started a couple of years ago, “I feature clothes from regular stores,” she says. Farrell has touted items from Tommy Hilfiger, Zappos, Patti and Ricky, The North Face and other makers of stylish clothes that appear to have buttons, but fasten with hidden Velcro or magnets. Nike has a FlyEase shoe line with running shoes and other specialized footwear with hands-free fasteners.

Farrell also does a “Wednesday Wonderful” video every week that highlights all sorts of products she likes, from a device that fastens buttons to a rocker knife for the kitchen.

“I'm kind of a foodie, and I like shopping and bars,” she says. Her Instagram account often features pictures of her taken during outings with her sister and mom.

“I have to stay healthy, be strong and continue to walk and be healthy. It's just a part of life now,” says Farrell, who does physical therapy twice a week and exercises on her own. “I am able to walk without my crutches for short distances around the house.”

Getting back to her fashion roots on Instagram came naturally. “I just started this for myself as a creative outlet,” she says, noting that she's also “a very competitive person.”

She's considered an influencer, and gets a small compensation when people find products and clothes through her site. She shares her story as a way to help others.

“I get it. People are curious. I let them know,” Farrell says. “I love to tell my story.”

She also loves “bright and happy colors,” she says. With more than 2,000 followers, she hopes to expand her reach.

“I am so blessed that I've come this far,” Farrell says. “I was meant to help people.”