TIME: Disabled Workers Deserve More Than Subminimum Wage

Keely Cat-Wells has been a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, an advisory board member on Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation and has visited the White House as a participant in the first Mental Health Youth Action Forum. Last year her talent agency, C Talent, was acquired by Whalar in a deal that’s making history as “one of the largest investments ever made in Disabled talent within the creator industry,” according to her profile on RollingStone Culture Council.

Since its inception, C Talent has scaled into a well-known Disabled-led talent management firm which represents high-profile Deaf and Disabled talent—including content creators, actors, directors, and writers. C Talent has successfully negotiated contracts and landed brand deals for talent with mainstream business giants like Savage X Fenty, Hulu, About-Face, Disney, Google, Subaru, Nike, and more.

As relatively easy as it may be for many creators to write a hit song or create a viral video, making money from their work may not be as intuitive. Enter the suits! The best executives—whether as a platform or an agent or manager—step in and step up to help creators maximize profits from their work and grow their audience. This can be specific to a particular cohort of creators: Keely Cat-Wells, founder and president of C Talent at Whalar, for example, works to give disabled creators more opportunities in front of and behind the camera.

Recognition of Cat-Wells' accomplishments includes The Red Backpack Grant from The Sara Blakey Foundation, The Diana Award, corporate sponsorship from American Eagle Outfitters, Forbes 30 Under 30 in Entertainment, and The Comerica Bank Award. What negative mindsets can you change to increase your market?

We collaborated with LEGO to enhance disability representation across their storytelling and character development. By participating in LEGO’s design sprint, we provided expertise to ensure that Disabled characters were authentically portrayed, scripts were inclusive, and employees had the knowledge to integrate accessibility into their work.

We collaborated with Sesame Street to provide comprehensive training on disability inclusion, universal design and accessible storytelling. This training was designed to equip the Sesame Street team with the knowledge and tools to create more authentic and inclusive content for disabled children and families. We also consulted to ensure the script portrayed Disabled characters in nuanced and authentic ways.

We’re so thrilled to bring you this year’s class of Young Influentials. In this digital cover story, we’re highlighting leaders and innovators spanning media, entertainment, marketing, tech and everything in between who are using their influence to change the way we think about branding. Whether it’s their impressive social media reach, brand partnerships or the ethos behind their vision, they’re successfully expanding their brands’ presence and rallying for positive change in the world, all before they’ve reached 40 years of age.

Cat-Wells founded her first company from her hospital bed when she became disabled at 17 years old: a talent agency representing her friends in the dance world, as she could no longer perform. When she moved to Los Angeles and lost a job due to her disability, she decided to found C Talent, a talent agency, which represents high-profile Deaf and Disabled talent. C Talent also provides Disability and Accessibility consulting for companies such as LEGO, Virgin Media, and Google.

"We were so inspired by Keely's mission to support disabled artists and create a more inclusive representation in the entertainment industry," said Stacey McCormick, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Aerie. "As a brand, Aerie is about celebrating our real selves, inclusivity, and diversity – we are so happy to support her cause."