We aren’t making that big a deal out of the fact that 2025 marks Amplitude’s 10th anniversary.
But it really is a pretty big deal—not only for us, but especially for you.
We launched the magazine in March 2015 because so many amputees told us they wanted to see more narratives about thriving with limb loss, not merely surviving it. Those types of stories were gaining traction thanks in part to Limb Loss and Limb Difference Awareness Month, which was a few years old and building momentum. A handful of amputees (Amy Purdy, Josh Sundquist, Aimee Mullins, Hugh Herr) had begun getting noticed in the mainstream media. Prosthetic technology was evolving at tremendous speed and drawing lots of financial investment. There seemed to be lots of great stories to tell and a market to serve. So we went for it.
We didn’t realize it back then, but our timing could not possibly have been better. At the moment Amplitude was laying out its first issue, the Range of Motion Project was organizing its first fundraising climb to the Cotopaxi summit. Amputee-initiated nonprofits like the Steps of Faith Foundation, Amputee Blade Runners, and the Heather Abbott Foundation started popping up all over the country. Veterans who’d lost limbs in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were making their mark in sports, politics, entertainment, and elsewhere. Amputee entrepreneurs were developing innovative new products, alongside a flood of inclusive merchandise in fashion, computers, vehicles, household goods, medicine, and other market sectors.
In short, amputees were in the process of forging a collective identity. You were organizing yourselves into a powerful community with a distinct sensibility and a commitment to educate and encourage each other. In the process, amputees started to influence the broader culture. Your adaptations to limb loss showed nondisabled people how to become smarter healthcare consumers, stronger self-advocates, more engaged citizens, and more purposeful humans.
Amplitude didn’t make any of this happen. We’ve just been privileged to watch it all unfold over the last decade and try to give it the publicity it deserves. That we’ve survived 10 years—longer than most niche publications—is a testament to you. We wouldn’t still be here if it weren’t for the strength of the limb-loss community.
And we wouldn’t be as excited about the next 10 years if it weren’t for all the stories that are still left to tell. As long as you keep doing interesting and important stuff, Amplitude will keep writing it all down as well as we can.
So grab yourself a slice of birthday cake and enjoy it with our first edition of 2025. We’re featuring articles about the curiously low profile of amputees with diabetes (page 12), confessions of lovers with limb loss (page 18), the joys of volunteering for prosthetic research (page 24), and the timetable for neuroprosthetics (page 28). It’s a brand new year—off we go.
