Name
Vanessa Tate
Alias/Nickname
Nessa
Age
29
Gender
Female
Sexuality
Lesbian
Occupation
Writer
Physical Appearance
Vanessa is a tall woman, standing at 5'11" without heels and weighing 159 lbs. Her eyes are dark brown and she has medium length dyed blonde hair. She likes to wear bright colored make up and often advertises her roommates make up techniques, styles and designs. Vanessa's right leg is completely prosthetic from thigh to foot. Her
prosthetic is pastel green with a floral design. Her prosthetic has a ball joint at the knee and ankle, so she can bend, however her movements do look somewhat stiff.
Vanessa always holds herself with confidence and walks tall, like her late uncle Derek taught her to. She has a medium level alto voice and usually sports a small smile on her face. Vanessa tends to wear cute blouses, fitted jeans and flats.
Distinguishing Features
Her right leg is prosthetic.
Ethnicity
African American
Holiday
Christmas, New Years and Kwanzaa.
Family
Brandon Tate - Father - Alive
Gretchen Tate - Mother - Alive
Derek Tate - Uncle - Deceased
Friends
OPEN
Boyfriend/Girlfriend
OPEN
Other Relationships
Xiomara Mendoza - Roommate
Location
She was born in Decatur but moved to Hyde Park.
Personality
Vanessa is a confident woman with a great sense of humor and a tendency to tease people lightly. She has a strong sense of responsibility when it comes to opening the minds of people who are ignorant of non able bodied people, and she hates bullies and oppressors. She doesn't get angry very much but when she is in a bad mood, she'll sulk and be a wet blanket. When she is angered however she'll cry angry tears and yell at you, she can stay mad at someone until they sincerely apologize to her. When she is in the wrong however, she'll apologize immediately once she considers why she was wrong.
Likes
Writing
Reading
Jogging
Being 'dolled up' by her roommate
Rom Coms
Parodies
Thai Chicken Peanut Butter Wraps
Dislikes
Action Movies
Ableist
Bullies
Grasshoppers
Crickets
Bull dogs
Aspirations
To complete her "Incomplete" Series.
Biography
Vanessa was born without her right leg but that didn't stop her from living her life to the fullest. Even though her disability stopped her from doing a lot of physical activities, she still found ways to have fun. Because she never had two legs, she didn't miss anything. She didn't get jealous when her cousins talked about competing in field day or obstacle courses, and she couldn't comprehend why her mother would always pray to God every night for Vanessa to be moved up the list to get a prosthetic leg. Honestly, when people pitied her or tip toed around her it pissed her off and she resolved to become so good at at managing without a leg she wouldn't be alienated for lacking one. So she began training herself at a young age to get accustomed to her surroundings, and often surprised her family when she was able to navigate around obstacles without their help. Bit by bit, her family began to see her in a different light and this caused her father who had at first refused to let Vanessa go to school for fear of her getting hurt, allow her to go at last.
School, was different for Vanessa. There were some kids who would tip toe around her, some who would try to hard to seem indifferent of her being different and then there some who were just plain mean and took advantage of her disability to bully her. When Vanessa came home with a black eye and black sharpie on her clothes one day, her father was so close to withdrawing her from school and homeschooling her, but before he could Vanessa's marine uncle, Derek stepped in and offered to teach her how to protect herself. Her parents were skeptical at first, but allowed it. Vanessa trained with Derek from fourth grade all the way to sixth grade, and soon learned how to land punches by depending on balance and shifting her weight so she didn't put so much pressure on her crutches and topple over. She wasn't an expert at fighting, but she knew enough to fight off her bullies when she went back to school. After that nobody messed with Vanessa, but unfortunately her new defense skills caused others to fear trying to befriend her. So Vanessa grew up without many friends outside of her cousins.
In high school, Vanessa finally got the prosthetic leg that her mother had been praying for for so long. At first Vanessa didn't want to use the thing because she didn't see why she needed it. She had learned to rely on her crutches and she didn't like how uncomfortable the leg made her feel. But because her parents had gone through so much trouble to get it, Vanessa used the leg. By senior year, she was completely used to the leg and enjoyed the fact that she could do nearly all the things she couldn't do before.
When Vanessa graduated from high school, she went to the University of Illinois and soon graduated with an English degree with a minor in Psychology. She got a job as an English teacher, but that life didn't satisfy her. She didn't want to spend her entire day analyzing what other author's meant, and she suddenly realized that she wanted to broaden the views of those who looked down on non able bodied people. So Vanessa started to write. She wrote one book, and after some encouragement from her family, she had it published and the book got her some fans and even an editor. As her fame grew and the royalties rolled in, Vanessa resolved to move out of her parents house and find her own place. Her parents objected at first, but Vanessa reassure them that she would check in every once in awhile to let them know she was okay. And with that, Vanessa moved to Hyde Park.
Miscellaneous
She writes under the pen name Tessa Blake and is known in the YA literature world for writing books with strong non able bodied characters as well as characters with psychological disorders.
She is currently working on a series of books about a Galaxy traveling girl missing the a part of her brain and traveling with a small group of non able bodied people. The series is called Incomplete.
