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More often than not, when posting something on social media, we assume that people’s reactions will be mostly negative. We hit ‘publish’ and brace ourselves for the negative outbursts. That’s what Nila Morton did when she posted a photo of herself, all done up and ready to party. She was worried about posting pictures that were a little more ‘sexy’ than her usual photo because she felt she didn’t embody the standard of beauty. But instead, the internet came through with messages of love and support. 

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Nila Morton of Greenville, South Carolina was born with a rare muscular condition called Ullrich congenital muscular dystrophy.

Nila’s condition causes impairments in muscle growth and strength, and leads to severe muscular weakness and exhaustion. She was worried about posting pictures that made her feel good about herself, or that were ‘too sexy’, because she felt she didn't embody the standard image of beauty.

Morton uses a wheelchair but does what she can to express herself with her appearance.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B5Rge7xHJL3/

This includes styling her hair, doing her makeup, and dressing well. She likes to dress up when she goes out for an event, but she always shied away from sharing any of the "sexy" photos taken of her, because she feared the criticism of living with a disability.

Finally this past weekend, Morton decided to post two photos of herself, wearing a cute, little black dress.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B8L1rkKn5Zg/

“I usually don’t post pictures of myself when I have a nice dress on or when I go out…because I get nervous about comments since I’m not society’s view of disability,” Nila Morton told BuzzFeed News. “I decided that I should just post it because I felt beautiful and sexy.”

Over the weekend, after getting dressed up and going out, Morton decided to post the photos. 

It was in the early hours of Sunday morning and she figured she could just go to bed right after, "just in case it backfired," she said, laughing. 

But to her surprise, the reaction was entirely different to what she’d expected

By the time she woke up, her tweet was already going viral. It's currently been retweeted over 36,000 times and liked over half a million times. Mostly, Morton has been reading floods of extremely supportive comments from people on Twitter.

As a result, Morton realized:

"Getting that much positive feedback made me smile and anxious at the same time. I know that some people had negative things to say, but I saw how people had my back, which made me realize that I should never be nervous to show off myself.”

In the comments, Twitter users had Morton’s back.

Many users expressed how beautiful she was and hoped she would continue to share. "Out of your comfort zone should be your New Zone," someone wrote. And the positive comments keep on coming!

Seeing so many positive comments on one young woman’s vulnerable post is such a heartwarming experience. 

The tweets included memes professing users’ STAN status. People hyped her up, thanked her for sharing and for being a role model. All in all, this post taught Nila, and many others, that sometimes, the internet actually has our back. 

Nila’s rare form of muscular dystrophy causes the muscles in her legs to deteriorate, and she can only travel short distances without needing her wheelchair.

It made her the target of cruel classmates who told Nila 'no-one would love her', but the brave woman refused to let their comments thwart her dreams of becoming a beauty queen - and she's already won two titles after competing alongside able-bodied contestants.  

Morton has competed against able-bodied contestants in beauty pageants and has won several titles!

As a tenacious teen, she managed to turn the criticism into something positive by pursuing her childhood dream of becoming a model —after noticing a lack of models with disabilities. Since then she's competed against able-bodied competitors in pageants and been named Miss Mauldin Teen USA and Miss Congeniality at Miss South Carolina Teen USA 2017.

'I'm a girl who has been bullied for having a disability and being different,' said Nila in a 2017 interview with The Daily Mail.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BxgGoHknwri/

“I'm embracing that I have a difference and want to show others that they don't need to change for society.”