New York (CNN) -- People come up to Aimee Mullins all the time and say, "you know, I have to tell you, you just don't look disabled."
The record-setting athlete, actress and model says, "And it's sweet because I know that they're confused, and they're telling me this because they know I'm missing both legs from the shin down, but they're presented with this package of a highly capable young woman. This has happened all over the world. I tell them it's interesting because I don't feel disabled."
She believes that people are not born disabled. "It's society that disables an individual by not investing in enough creativity to allow for someone to show us the quality that makes them rare and valuable and capable."
Mullins was born without fibula bones and was expected to use a wheelchair to get around. Her legs were amputated below the knees when she was a year old. She learned to walk, bike, swim and play sports using prosthetics. While a student at Georgetown University, she competed in the NCAA Division I, using pioneering carbon-fiber prosthetic devices designed to imitate the hind legs of a cheetah. At the Paralympics in 1996, she set world records in several track events, drawing attention that landed her on magazine covers and in one media "best of" list after another.
Mullins was featured in a 1999 show by the late fashion designer Alexander McQueen and has gone on to a career as an actress. In an interview with CNN.com, she said she's beginning work on a screenplay about the life of scientist Rosalind Franklin, whose discoveries helped lead to the unlocking of the structure of DNA.
In a talk at last year's TED MED conference in San Diego, Mullins explored the concept of disability and talked about how overcoming adversity is something everyone must confront, in one way or another. [TED is a nonprofit that distributes talks on a wide variety of subjects at http://www.ted.com/; TED MED is a separate organization that focuses on medical and health care related issues.]
