Evelyna Castro is an amazing voice actor and Ex-Miss Wheelchair Washington. Formerly, she also worked as both a makeup artist and a theatre actress. She was born in San Jose, California.
Evelyna was born with Spina Bifida Myelomeningocele which is technically the most severe form of Spina Bifida. This left her paralyzed from the knees down. During her early childhood, she walked with the assistance of reciprocal gate braces. When she was 10 years old, she broke her leg which lead to full-time manual wheelchair use.
While attending catholic primary school, Evelyna had some tough times. Because she was extremely shy and didn't know how to defend herself properly, children often made fun of her and bullied her with her disability.
Despite her shyness and her difficulties with making friends, Evelyna still always tried to stand up for herself. During the 4th grade, she even got in a fight with a classmate because he called her wheelchair a 'stroller'. This incident was the first time she ever got detention. Contrary to what you might expect, her parents weren't even mad at her because of this, because they knew she was bullied and they were glad that she did her best to defend herself. because of actions like this one, Evelyna ensured that the bullying got less and less and eventually even stopped.
In high school, Evelyna wasn't a victim of bullying anymore, but she still had a hard time making friends.
Because Evelyna enjoyed doing creative things and always had a dream of working in the performing arts, she decided to become part of a theatre group. This turned out to be a great decision. Not only did she really like her new hobby, it also helped her getting rid of her shyness and making lots of friends.
After Evelyna graduated from high school, she took a year off of school to be a Corps member for "City Year" in San Jose/Silicon Valley. This is an Americorps program where she tutored children one-on-one in elementary schools and middle schools.
After she completed her year with City Year, she pursued a career path as an actress in the Performing Arts. Unfortunately, this turned out to be practically impossible. At every attempt she undertook to get a role in a play, she was rejected with arguments like a wheelchair-inaccessible stage or that there was no role for a character in a wheelchair.
While still wanting to pursue a career as an actor, Evelyna found voice-acting to be her outlet. Evelyna also attended Foothill Theatre Conservatory in Palo Alto, where she graduated as a Special Effects Makeup Artist.
Eventually, Evelyna moved to Washington State where she worked as a Wig & Makeup Designer(a job she unfortunately lost due to the coronavirus pandemic). In 2014, she was persuaded by a friend of her to applicate for The Ms. Wheelchair Washington pageant later that year. She first had her doubts because she never liked to be portrayed as a 'disabled person'. It didn't take long though before she discovered that the Ms. Wheelchair pageant was of great value for herself and for the disabled community. Because of her radiant appearance during the pageant and because of her impressive life story, Evelyna was crowned Ms. Wheelchair Washington 2014!
As Ms. Wheelchair Washington, Evelyna now had a year long duty to act as a disability advocate and to make lots of public appearances as the main representative for wheelchair users in Washington. Though it was a hectic year, Evelyna can look back at it with great joy.
Evelyna still does some advocacy work now and then and takes on bookings as a voice actor for preferably cartoon characters, TV and radio commercials. If all goes well, she will soon graduate as a certified "Fitness Trainer & Nutrition Coach", for which she is now studying.
Evalyna also has a wide range of sports which she practices. She is a very proficient archer, she loves track and field, she likes boxing and can often be found in the gym. She won several medals and trophies in both archery and track and field! Besides that, she really loves travelling and music.
If you would like to see an adorable video starring Evelyna, you should absolutely check out the YouTube link down below. The video is made by the channel Hiho Kids. The kids truly show that ableism is learned behaviour, and that a lot of boundaries can be broken by just talking and asking questions. ❤️
