NEED TO KNOW
Caylee Blosenski has a gold, chrome prosthetic leg, which she got at 17; she was 11 when her leg was amputated following an Osteosarcoma diagnosis
The model-actress, 19, shows off both her style and sense of humor on TikTok, where her videos have amassed 6 million views
Blosenski opens up about her style, childhood and posting on social media in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE
Caylee Blosenski is a “diehard gold girl.”
So receiving her gold, chrome prosthetic leg in 2023 was “a huge moment for me,” the Wisconsin-based influencer and actress, 19, tells PEOPLE. “It had been a dream of mine for over a year,” says Blosenski, “and I was so excited to finally have something that would make me feel both confident and beautiful.”
She was 17 at the time. When her leg was amputated, she was 11.
The year before, she had “noticed discomfort and pain in my left ankle,” she tells PEOPLE. And while it was uncomfortable, it wasn’t altogether “unusual” for the Cheaper by the Dozen actress, who was a gymnast at the time. But “when the pain got significantly worse, my parents decided to take me to get an MRI,” she recalls.
“That was the week my life completely changed,” says Blosenski. “After getting the results back and spending a couple days in the hospital for more testing, the doctors came to the conclusion I had Osteosarcoma — in other words, cancer.”
At the time, she recalls, “I wasn’t really sure what cancer meant, so it was a fast and scary learning process. I went through chemotherapy for about a year. During that time, we had made the decision to amputate my leg.”
Just 11 years old, the process was fraught with “uncertainty and frustration,” Blosenski says, “but I knew this decision would give me the highest percentage of survival while also allowing me to live an active life.”
“It took about a year for me to start wearing a prosthetic leg due to my surgical wounds blistering and extreme phantom pain. I can’t say the first leg I got was magical, but it just took time, effort and a lot of getting used to,” Blosenski continues. “During that year with no prosthetic,” she adds. “I took it upon myself to learn life on my one leg.”
And learn she did: Less than a month after her amputation, she was back to her gymnast ways, “doing backhand springs on the trampoline” and competing on the national level in four different events sans prosthetic, she tells PEOPLE.
Blosenski also began her modeling career while “still getting treatments” — part of her life that she now shares with her over 48,000 TikTok followers. Though, she recalls, she “was very nervous and skeptical to post on social media” at first — despite it playing a “significant” role in both the acting and modeling worlds.
“It was always something I wanted to do, but I never felt ready or comfortable with putting myself on the internet in front of millions of people,” says Blosenski, whose videos currently have 6 million likes on TikTok. “For me, it was all about timing. I had people try to force posting on social media too early when I wasn’t in the right headspace to be sharing myself in that way.”
“I was very insecure in my early teens and would have taken it personally if someone said something negative about me,” she adds. “I have now accepted that you can’t let other people’s opinions consume your life and to be transparent and confident in my own skin.”
Plus, she admits, her style has also evolved a lot since her early teens, when “micro trends” and “fast fashion brands” dominated her wardrobe. “While I’m still a sucker for a good trend,” Blosenski says, “I now have ventured more into being my own influencer and buying timeless and unique pieces from a variety of brands.”
She now shows off her more mature style — which she describes as “classy and timeless,” but also ever-changing — on TikTok, where she struts, dances, lip-syncs and sometimes even shows off her gymnastics chops to high-energy bops. She also garners millions of views with more humorous content, like this one, in which she jokes that she’s “hangin out with my ancestors” — a.k.a. a gold-plated mannequin.
“It’s always fun incorporating my prosthetics into my outfits,” says the model-actress. “I’m a diehard gold girl, so having my gold, chrome leg to style has been an absolute dream to have; it elevates my outfits even more.”
But Blosenski doesn’t plan on stopping with gold. “It would be sick to have a whole inventory of legs that I could rotate through and pick out every morning while putting together an outfit,” she tells PEOPLE. “I’m currently in the process of creating two more legs that I’m extremely excited to share with the world.”
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One, she teases, is a “chrome leg but in a different color,” while the other “will be a part of my Halloween costume this year.” She didn’t reveal what the costume is, but she did say she loves “creative” suggestions in her comments — from C-3PO to Cherry Darling from Planet Terror.
“Reading through my comments, I honestly wasn’t expecting how loving and supportive everyone has been. It’s such a pleasant surprise and I’m blessed to have such kind-hearted people following me,” she says. “It has made beginning my TikTok so much easier.”
“While I didn’t have the average childhood, it made me who I am today,” adds the influencer. “I’m proud to be unique and for the story I have to tell. I would love to push past the limiting label of ‘disabled’ because even though I lost my leg, I have gained more than I ever could’ve imagined.
“I hope I can show other people going through hard times that one part of their life doesn’t define who they are forever, and that it does get better.”
Read the original article on People
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source uk.style.yahoo.com ’
