Chelsea Blackwell: The One Self-Conscious ‘Love Is Blind’ Contestant Who Thinks And Sees Herself As Disabled

I can’t just post a blog entry all about Megan Fox, and then ignore the elephant in the room, which is the latest season of ‘Love Is Blind’. I didn’t even fully watch it, but I know it was filled with drama and unhinged moments. These moments included Chelsea telling Jimmy that people have told her she looked like Megan Fox, but only nose up, so for him not to get too excited. But the thought of being married to someone who resembles Megan Fox DID get him too excited, so he broke thing off with Jessica, another contestant he had a connection with, to propose To Chelsea. Jimmy couldn’t hide his shock and disappointment when he saw that Chelsea looked absolutely nothing like Megan Fox, and the internet couldn’t get enough of it. If we’re being completely honest, that was the one thing that interested me this past season.

The internet was so cruel that Brian Austin Green, Megan Fox’s ex-husband and father to her 3 kids, felt that he needed to enter the chat. He responded with the following statement:

“It’s crazy. I’ve had it before, where people go, ‘Hey you kind of look like so-and-so.’ And to me, watching that, that’s all she was doing. She doesn’t know; she’s on a show called ‘Love Is Blind’. She’s never done anything like this before.”

He continued, “To her, I’m sure it felt really good when people were like, ‘You kind of look like Megan’ … so she shared it. But she shared it in a format where millions of people are watching and are judging her for it.”

“You live and learn. That’s probably not the best thing to say on a show called ‘Love is Blind,’ because it seems like you’re opening yourself up to criticism. I do think people should cut her some slack.

“Megan is a very one-of-a-kind beauty. It’s why a lot of people say she’s possibly the most beautiful woman in the world. She has a very incredible look to her,” he told TMZ. “So that’s a tough comparison, I think, for anyone to make. Stay in your lane, Chelsea. Keep your head up. Don’t listen to everybody else. Be proud of yourself and move on.”Megan is a very one-of-a-kind beauty. It’s why a lot of people say she’s possibly the most beautiful woman in the world. She has a very incredible look to her, so that’s a tough comparison, I think, for anyone to make. Stay in your lane, Chelsea. Keep your head up. Don’t listen to everybody else. Be proud of yourself and move on.”

First of all, any woman out there should feel oh, so lucky to have an ex-husband like Brian Austin Green; someone that will be your biggest cheerleader and supporter even after things didn’t work out between two people in a marriage. It shows that there can, in fact, be love after a breakup. And second, this is telling of Chelsea’s character. After her bit aired, Chelsea responded on TikTok, “Go on a show for love > get your butt dragged through the trenches,” in a Feb. 21 TikTok. And in another TikTok post, she said, “This would be a great time for the people who have ever told me that I resembled (Megan Fox) to come forward. Please, I’m begging you.”

During an interview with E! News, Chelsea said it was just a silly comment made during a 5 hour date. She then proceeded to say that Jimmy told her that he looked like Christian McCaffrey. Let’s just say that Megan Fox got some free promotion for practically doing nothing, and Chelsea made herself become the joke of the town. Youtubers, bloggers, and influencers were going nuts making content out of her (and Megan Fox). Any information I knew of about season 6 of ‘Love Is Blind came from Youtubers, influencers and bloggers, and that information didn’t disappoint me. I was very much entertained, and I’m so glad I didn’t waste any of my precious time actually watching the show to its entirety. Seasons 3, 4 and 5 were already unbearable.

Because of Chelsea comparing herself to Megan Fox, she’s been labelled by the internet as being self-conscious. I could possibly believe that Chelsea telling Jimmy she looked like Megan Fox was, in fact, just something she said in the moment during a 5-hour date. She didn’t even say she looked like Megan Fox, but rather that people had previously told her she looked like Megan Fox, but just from the nose and up. Many have actually stated that Chelsea looked more like Megan Fox than Megan Fox does, and I just couldn’t unsee it. And though I do believe that Chelsea telling Jimmy she looked like Megan Fox was just a one-off, I don’t believe that she’s not self-conscious. I’m basing it off of the clips I’d seen of her and Jimmy’s relationship following their big reveal and proposal.

When I said that Jimmy’s reaction to seeing Chelsea for the first time was unhinged, I mean it in the nicest way possible. Personally, if I saw someone that supposedly loved me and wanted to propose to me and spend the rest of their life with me react the way that Jimmy did when he saw Chelsea for the first time, that person would be out the door immediately. They wouldn’t even get a chance to get down on one knee to ask for my hand in marriage. I have too much dignity and too much self-respect to even allow such disrespect into my life. But Chelsea went along with it even though she saw that Jimmy seemed disappointed in her appearance, mainly because she didn’t look like Megan Fox. And with that being said, she always questioned him and his intentions, as well as whether he even loved her in the first place throughout their entire journey on ‘Love Is Blind’. She found every little reason to start a fight during their engagement, and showed Jimmy no trust and no respect throughout their time together. No matter how much he tried to make it work with her, she didn’t oblige. She always found reasons to doubt and question his intentions. And it was too the point that HE was the one to break things off with her before the wedding day.

Personally, I find that the American version of ‘Love Is Blind’ is the lamest one of them all. The international ones are so much better and so much more realistic and natural. Maybe it comes down to the people that participate on the show, as well as the people behind the camera and beyond. Seeing Chelsea’s story-line unfold reminded me of a few couples from the international versions of the show. Most of them (obviously) didn’t make it, and some others (to my utter surprise) did. First, let’s look at the couples that didn’t make it. First, there was a couple that had ended their relationship before it even began. During the reveal, he was taken aback by her weight. He tried to hide his disappointment, but to no avail. She saw right through his bullsh*t and broke things off with him. In her own words, she deserved better and was worth a lot more than he made her out to be. Second, there was a couple who broke things off while living together. He insisted he wanted his marriage to look like a typical 1950’s era, where the man works and the woman takes care of the household and the kids. She tried to make him change his mind and see the worth in having a working woman by his side. One evening after he came home from work and she had a dinner ready for him, she said that life that he envisioned for them wasn’t for her. He wasn’t willing to compromise, so they broke things off for good. And lastly, there was a couple with a big age gap. When I say a big age gap, I mean a 20 year age gap, maybe even more. She insisted that she was fine with it, but she obviously wasn’t, and he saw right through her. Right before she was about to walk down the aisle, he broke things off with her for that reason.

With all these couples that didn’t make the cut, there was one couple in particular that truly surprised me. As my husband and I were watching the show together, I jokingly said to him, ‘But imagine if I went on the show. What would it look like for me?’ Just like any joke, it was only 50% a joke, and 50% truth. It was actually a real thought that I had for myself. I never had any issues with dating with a disability. I was always honest with anyone I dated and disclosed my disability right from the beginning. During a time when my husband and I were separating, I did some online dating. I got to know someone pretty great, and if it wasn’t for the fact that I was still in love with my husband and still wanted to make it work with him, that someone would’ve probably been my second husband. He was my age, had his own recruitment agency, and was Jewish. He seemed perfect for me, at least on paper. Dating seemed to be scarier this time around after marriage; not because I hadn’t dated in years, but because I had a lot more at stake this time around. But all that’s well ends well. I told him I had cerebral palsy, and he that was when he asked me out on a date. Then I told him of my epilepsy diagnosis, and he still wanted to go on that date, and even planned out a mock-tail date for us.

And even though dating was never an issue with disability and chronic illness in mind, the mere idea of getting engaged to someone without them knowing of my disability, them getting to know me through a wall, and them getting to see my disability thereafter seemed like a pretty f*cking crazy idea. But then I saw a match made in heaven. It was as though it was made for me to see. Suddenly, I saw a woman come on screen. There was something different about her. She didn’t have a hand due to a disability. She ended up connecting with someone, but she didn’t tell him anything about having a disability. She told him she had a son, but nothing about having a disability. And even after he proposed to her, she still didn’t tell him of her disability. My husband and I were betting whether or not he’d break things off with her at the reveal when he realizes that she’s actually disabled, as well as the fact that she didn’t say anything to him.

To our surprise, he didn’t think of her any differently when he saw her. In fact, he embraced her with open arms and was so happy to see her when they met for the first time following their engagement. Her disability was never an issue throughout their time together on the show, and they ended up marrying in the end. As someone who’s disabled myself, specifically physically disabled, it was so refreshing for me to see this love story unfold. He didn’t see her for her disability. He saw beyond that. It was evident when they first laid eyes on each other. She was scared to tell him before they met, for she was afraid he’d have a different image of her if she told him. But she was wrong, because as soon as the doors opened, he ran to her with the biggest smile on his face, and embraced her with open arms.

It was then that I realized what an important story-line it was for me to see. It reminded me that my disability is what makes me unique, and it’s something I shouldn’t be ashamed of. My disability and illness are a part of my story, but they don’t define me. My husband once told me that if I didn’t have cerebral palsy, he wouldn’t have persuaded me. My disability was what intrigued him in the first place. It was the part that drew him to me, because it was the part that made me so interested to him, and made him so invested in getting to know me. RJ Mitte, an actor, once said:

So many people try to hide their disability. They try to lock it away because they think disability is not sexy, disability is not flattering… but that’s not the case.”

“Even though you have a disability, that does not make you disabled [in other ways]. It gives you insight. It gives you knowledge. It gives you something that someone without that will never learn.”

“A lot of people think that perfection is a six foot tall, hundred-pound (1.8-metre, 45-kilogram) model girl. I don’t know what world you live in, but I don’t see girls like that on the streets too often. I do see people with disabilities and diversities, and I think that’s what we need to show as beautiful and true, even with what people consider imperfections.

This disabled woman who found her great love on ‘Love Is Blind’ saw more in herself than Chelsea ever did, and I aim to be just like her in my life. She doesn’t define herself by her disability. She doesn’t go around dwelling on her situation or thinking she’s anything less than and questioning her worth. Instead, she’s living her life despite her disability. Chelsea, for one, is a beautiful woman, but she saw in herself what most disabled people think of themselves – doubt, insecurity, and the belief that she’s not enough. In the end, it cost her her relationship with Jimmy, and nothing else. If she believed in herself, as well as in her worth, just a little bit more, she would’ve been much better off.

In the end, the way you see yourself matters. It’s truly evident in seeing the difference between how Chelsea’s relationship with Jimmy unfolded and how the disabled woman’s relationship unfolded on the show. You don’t have to be disabled to think of yourself as disabled, and you don’t have to be an able-bodied person to think of yourself as worthy enough. The way you think of yourself will envision how others see you, and that’s the most important lesson I learned from watching the many seasons and numerous versions of ‘Love Is Blind.’ I’m not defined by my disability and illness. Instead, I’m defined by how I see myself, as well as my strength and courage while living with a disability and illness that could’ve potentially destroyed me. Me having cerebral palsy and epilepsy is what makes me great, and that’s something I have to remind myself of every single day of my life. Living a full and beautiful life is about knowing your worth and never settling less than you deserve.