Mama Cax

Mama Cax (born November 20, 1989, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.—died December 16, 2019, London, England) was a Haitian American advocate for people with disabilities and a model with a rising career. She is perhaps best known for challenging the fashion industry’s standards by modeling with her crutches and making her prosthetic leg visible.

Early life, cancer diagnosis, and hip replacement surgery

Cax was born Cacsmy Brutus in Brooklyn, New York, but grew up in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. She was the eldest of five daughters, followed by her sisters Sabienne, Lei, Cassline, and Ashley Brutus, of parents Marie Vilus and Cacsman Brutus. At age 14 Cacsmy Brutus was diagnosed with lung and bone cancer. She and her family returned to the United States, where she underwent treatment. In a 2018 feature for the Standard hotel, she described “going through chemotherapy at age 14, 15, and…losing so much weight.” She continued, “Another thing that was hard for me was losing my hair—it’s such a big thing for a lot of women in general but especially in the Black community and especially coming from Haiti, where hair is really valued. It’s really a way to express yourself. It’s a form of art.” At age 16 Brutus had hip replacement surgery, which her body rejected a few weeks later. Doctors were forced to amputate her right leg, requiring her to use a prosthetic replacement and crutches. She told Glamour in 2019, “I probably spent one or two weeks without looking at my body whatsoever. That sort of disgust lingered and lasted throughout my early years in college. Feeling beautiful or being in a space where I would feel beautiful was not at all on my radar. It wasn’t a priority because I figured I could never get there.”

Gaining attention through Instagram and her blog

Brutus opted to study international studies close to home at the City College of New York, but she vowed to study abroad and travel frequently. While in college, she began going by the name Mama Cax and documenting her experiences in a blog and on Instagram. Over the years she offered glimpses of her trips to France, Tunisia, and Italy. Cax’s pictures also show her experimenting with fashion, painting the toenails of her prosthetic foot, and wearing decorative prosthetic covers. By the mid-2010s she had created an Internet space celebrating the beauty and autonomy of women with disabilities. “I didn’t see body appreciation being shown to people with disabilities or people with scars, so I started sharing my story on Instagram,” she told The New York Times in 2019. “I was sharing for women who don’t see themselves as beautiful and don’t see their bodies celebrated.” Her Instagram and blog soon attracted media attention, and Cax appeared in a couple of features on HuffPost and BuzzFeed in 2015 and 2016. During the last months of the Obama administration, in 2016, Cax was invited to walk in a White House fashion show highlighting inclusive design, assistive technology, and prosthetics.

Modeling career and partnership with the United Nations

In 2017 Cax appeared in her first advertising campaign with Wet n Wild cosmetics and secured a spot with a modeling agency. Cax landed additional campaigns for Tommy Hilfiger and Sephora and walked shows for Chromat and Savage X Fenty. She also appeared on the September 2018 cover of Teen Vogue. That year Cax partnered with the United Nations, speaking at the annual International Day of the Girl and hosting body-positive workshops.

Death at 30

During a trip to London, Cax passed away at age 30. Although no cause was given, Cax had reported on Instagram experiencing severe abdominal pain. She was taken to the Royal London Hospital, where she was diagnosed with several blood clots near her lungs, leg, and abdomen. Her death a week later inspired hundreds of tributes and Instagram posts. On February 8, 2023, Google honored Cax with a Google Doodle that featured text by her family.