JESSICA COX
WORLD'S FIRST LICENSED ARMLESS PILOT, AUTHOR, MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER, PHILANTHROPIST
Jessica Cox is a motivational speaker featured on outlets like Fox and Friends, CNN, BBC News, and National Geographic. Her speaking career spans 18 years, 28 countries, and audiences of up to 40,000 people.
Jessica was born without arms, so uses her feet the way most people use their hands. Jessica grew up asking with frustration and anger, “Why did God make me this way?” Later, she learned how to see God’s blessings in her life and to accept herself as a whole person.
Now, Jessica flies airplanes, drives cars, is married, and lives a normal life. She holds the title of the first person without arms to earn a black belt in ATA Martial Arts. Jessica is most known for being the Guinness World Records’ first armless person in aviation history to earn a pilot’s certificate.
In 2017, Jessica created the nonprofit Rightfooted Foundation to further her advocacy for children with limb differences and other disabilities around the world. The foundation’s first project was the YouTube channel, “Life with Feet,” which highlights the unique ways Jessica and her friend, Tisha Unarmed, navigate life without arms. The “Life with Feet” videos garnered more than one million views in their first two years of release and continue to act as a resource for amputees around the world.
After seeing the impact that Jessica has when she visits youth with her airplane, the Rightfooted Foundation decided to go one step further and design the first solely foot-controlled airplane in history. The modified RV-10 will allow her to reach more people more quickly, and epitomize the message that “Disability does not mean Inability.” Dubbed “The Impossible Airplane,” the aircraft is expected to be ready for flight in 2025. Jessica intends to use it to circumnavigate the world by 2030. More information can be found at www.TheImpossibleAirplane.com.
Jessica is the author of Disarm Your Limits, a motivational self-help book published in 2015. It is available in paperback at www.DisarmYourLimits.com. Also in 2015, Jessica teamed up with Emmy Award winning filmmaker Nicholas Spark to create “Right Footed,” a documentary that chronicles Jessica’s flight training, mentorship, and advocacy for people with disabilities. “Right Footed” has won numerous awards, including Best Social Impact Film at the Hollywood International Film Festival.
God’s Challenges Deliver Us From Mediocrity
Jessica Cox
What is most likely the first thing a stranger will notice about me when we share an elevator? I hope it would be my smile, but it’s probably that I don’t have arms. I was born without them. But why is my birth condition so remarkable to others? Why can’t many people overlook my lack of arms? We expect other people to have arms. Humans are normally born with ten fingers and ten toes. People tend to find anything else alarming.
But where does this standard come from? Why do people expect absolute perfection? I believe that it is because we are made for perfection. We are made to experience the perfect, and when something falls short of it, we notice. But the world is not perfect, and my body is just one example. We can find injustice and suffering everywhere we look, and, like my missing arms, it is glaring. But does that mean that expecting perfection is absurd or ridiculous? I believe that there is infinite Perfection, but that our vision of that Perfection is obscured by the imperfections of this world. People are shocked by a person having no arms because it is a natural desire to want to see the Perfect, and I am a reminder that they don’t yet.
But shouldn’t the infinitely Perfect, what we commonly refer to as “God,” have prevented all imperfections, including mine? Not necessarily. Imperfection can be an instrument for good. My lack of arms inspired me to develop a motivational speaking career, through which I have helped people around the world. I have spoken to thousands who have benefited through their perspective on my life. This might not have happened had I been born with arms. My loss has been other people’s gain. Perhaps my imperfection has been a tool in the hands of an Other? Could it be that our challenges in life deliver us from mere mediocrity? If I had arms, I might never have advocated for people with disabilities, never earned a Guinness World Record as the first armless person certified to fly an airplane, or been the subject of an award-winning documentary.
You don’t have to look far to encounter people who search for reasons to view their lives as a half-filled glass. How can it be, with the lot that I’ve been “given,” that I see my life as exciting, fulfilling, enjoyable, and meaningful? Where does that come from? I believe that being able to focus on everything I have to be thankful for, rather than on what many consider as lacking, is a gift from God. Every day I look around and see the beauty of life and the miracles happening around me. If I can see this so clearly in my position, why can’t others?