ABOUT

Hi y’all, I’m Chandler! I am an Arkansas native with a passion for social media, patient advocacy, and searching for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe.

A question I get asked a lot is, “were your parent’s big Friends fans?” No, they weren’t. In fact, I was born in ’93 – a year before the show even aired. But while we’re on the subject, I will say I’m more of a Rachel with a pinch of Phoebe, but I’m also very much a ‘Chandler.’

While you’re here there is something you should know, I once paid a guy (well, my insurance did) for over three years to break my bones and make me taller. It’s actually a pretty big deal and I’m forever grateful for the experience 🙂 I documented all 18 inches of it and more on my Facebook page. Through the literal blood, sweat, and tears I developed a passion for social media and patient advocacy.

I would say most of the content I develop comes from my own filing cabinet of medical records over the years. A majority of my audience includes patients, parents, and physicians. But there’s more to me than just broken bones and new heights.

I’m definitely not the typical “blogger” or “influencer.” I’m very quick-witted and opinionated. If you look up “personality traits of the third child” or “baby of the family” it pretty much sums me up perfectly. I feel like the typical blog includes scheduled content of fashion, beauty, recipes, and travel.

I write when the urge occurs (a lot of my posts are 1 a.m. ramblings that I text myself). I’m not a fashion blogger, but I can spot leopard print from a mile away. I live in leggings and although I love being barefoot, my shoe collection just keeps growing. I prefer bright pink lips over the red lip classic. When it comes to food, I put hot sauce on just about everything. I prefer salty over sweets – but enjoy baking. I love restaurants where the bread is complimentary and the chips and salsa are made in house. I’m a frequent flyer but hate packing. So far the stamps in my passport include England, the Dominican Republic, and Spain.

This platform is basically a digital diary to myself that’s open to the public.

Chandler Crews is a communications professional, media socialite, and patient advocate. In 2010, she began building her online presence through daily updates via her viral Facebook page, Chandler in Baltimore. She was the first person with achondroplasia to publicize her day-to-day experience with limb lengthening, a controversial procedure in the dwarfism community, through various forms of online media.

In 2015, she was hired by GrowingStronger.org as their social media manager. She recruited world-renowned medical professionals specialized in dwarfism for their web series, LP Doc Talk.  The following year she traveled with her surgeon and his medical team from the Rubin Institute for Advanced Orthopedics on their annual mission trip to CURE Hospital in the Dominican Republic. She documented the week-long trip on social media for donors of the Save-A-Limb Fund to act as virtual team members.

In addition to social media, Chandler has an extensive background in public speaking ranging from school classrooms, medical workshops and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. She has been featured in numerous media outlets.

• LR Teenager’s Life-Changing Surgery to Lengthen Her Legs (KATV, 2011)
• Sinai Hospital doctors pioneer limb-lengthening procedure (Baltimore Sun, 2014)
• Limb-Lengthening Surgery Creates Controversy (NBC San Diego, 2014)
• Bones That Fit (Carly Machen, 2017)
• My Not-So-Short Life: Why Limb Lengthening Surgery Was Right for Me (RadioMD, 2018)
• A controversial new treatment promises to make little people taller. Is it an insult to ‘dwarf pride’? (STAT News, 2019)

Today, Chandler is the founder and president of The Chandler Project – an independent, nonprofit organization 501(c)(3), dedicated to providing the most up-to-date research and development for the most common form of dwarfism, achondroplasia.  Tax ID: 83-1692863

For media inquiries, collaboration opportunities, and information on The Chandler Project and it’s upcoming events contact Chandler here.