Kam Redlawsk

Kam Redlawsk is an award-winning disabled industrial designer, artist, author, consultant, speaker, and advocate.
As a Korean and Japanese American adoptee born in South Korea and raised in Michigan, Kam’s life is a rich tapestry of experiences shaped by her ultra-rare muscle-wasting condition, with her creativity, voice, and resilience taking center stage.

Los Angeles-based artist and author Kam is known for sharing vulnerable memoirs and illustrating moments from her life, primarily thoughts on living with a progressive disorder that has been taking her to complete immobility since she was a teenager.

Kam is also a debut author and illustrator with a picture book inspired by her rare disease and disability, coming out in 2025.

Kam has been a voice for the rare disease and disabled community since 2006: using art, writing, travels and creative tools that connect us as humans. But the true inspiration behind all of Kam’s creativity and advocacy is the human condition and its fragility. Kam believes vulnerability is a strength; she also believes humans have more in common than differences. She believes creativity and storytelling are important for gaining perspective. Kam also believes stories create bridges within humanity, and understanding emotions is crucial for becoming whole and understanding systemic structures, history, and human behavior and motivation, like the quest for power rooted in emotional landscapes.

As a Korean American adoptee in the largest international adoption group since the Korean War, Kam understands the effects of societal issues and ills rooted in systemic structures, social stigmas, and ideological and societal traditions. Whether Kam is speaking on design at Kyoto Design University, a keynote speaker for National Scholastic Awards, sharing her insights at MIT, or showcasing her art in Washington DC as a rare disease award recipient with congressional staff, Kam’s varied interests and experiences equip her to speak on a wide array of topics.

Kam embodies a dynamic yet gentle force, bringing a balanced and empathetic voice to today’s divided world.

As a daydreamer and inspiration chaser, Kam spends her time advocating for others, enacting creative ideas, traveling the globe in her wheelchair, and adventure exploration like road trips skydiving and parasailing. Knowing that one day she will be completely immobile, Kam focuses on living life to the fullest and exploring the human condition. To do this, she creates, travels, explores, loves, yearns, contemplates, writes, dreams, and believes in more than herself, staying open to all the world has to offer.

Kam is doing all of this. and she’s just begun.