It was an incredibly heartwarming moment.
Jessica Cox was born without arms, but that didn't stop her from fulfilling her dream of becoming a pilot.
Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images.
In "Rightfooted," a documentary about Cox's incredible accomplishments, she attributes much of her confidence to an older woman named Barbara Guerra, who mentored her.
Guerra, who is also missing both arms, helped Cox on her journey to realizing that her disability didn't have to hold her back. It was the first time Cox had met anyone who looked like her, who was completely independent and doing all the things that Cox had been told a person needed arms to do.
"It's really incredible how one person can be that difference for someone," Cox says in the trailer.
At the premiere of "Rightfooted," Cox met a 3-year-old girl who was also born without arms.
Cox wanted to show her that you don't need arms to do the things that are most important to being human, just as she had learned many years ago.
So she gave her a hug.
Heartwarming photo of young girl and pilot shows you don
According to Nicole Pelletiere of ABC News, hugging is extremely important to Cox.
"The top question I get as a speaker is 'How do you hug?,'" [Cox] said. "That picture clearly showed that you don't need arms to embrace someone. It was special that we could feel the same, mutual feeling — what a hug is without arms."
Cox travels constantly speaking up for people with disabilities and advocating for equality. She's currently urging countries around the world to support the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities at the United Nations, an agreement that aims to promote inclusion of, and prevent discrimination against, people with disabilities worldwide.
But giving out hugs is just as important. It shows each and every person born with her condition that they can live a life that's just as happy and full of love as anyone else.
As Cox puts it in "Rightfooted": "All it takes is one person."
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