Starting her life, she lost her arms and legs due to bacteria

Native from Portland, Oregon, was two years old when she contracted a bacterial infection called Pneumococcus where gangrene overtook her limbs and her doctors were forced to amputate them.

But that’s never stopped from having big dreams for the future. After revealing her love of dancing to a staffer from the Dream Factory, a nonprofit organization based in her hometown that helps sick children live out their fondest wish.

She just wants to live and continue to achieve goals

Kiera’s passion and strong will combine with her beautiful spirit allows her to use what legs and arms she has to live a full and happy life.

She said, “Life hasn’t been completely easy. There are different things I’ve had to go through to try to make it easier, for example, I text a lot. There’s a bone in my arm that I use. It’s the same way I use a keyboard. I can type 60 words a minute. I can also get dressed on my own. Everyone has different problems. The things that I’m able to do now and how I portray myself never really shows that I think of myself in that way. Also, my family has never treated me that way”.

One of her passions is dancing

Her disability means that she will likely have a short-lived dance career; her movements onstage affect the bones in her legs, which means she has to have periodic surgeries to reshape them.

But for now, she’s focused on pursuing her passion, whatever it takes. She said, “When I got serious about dance, it was an expression, it’s my voice without speaking. I wanted to go out and do everything, I had learned how to do with my arms and legs, and adapt to how to do it without them”.

Now, she and her half-sister Uriah Boyd, who was born just a month before Kiera got sick, are the stars of Soar (a documentary in 2015), which follows their lives as they endeavor to make it big in the dancing world.