On My Own Two Feet

Amy Purdy, who inspired a nation on Dancing with the Stars and has been called a hero by Oprah Winfrey, reveals the intimate details of her triumphant comeback from the brink of death to making history as a Paralympic snowboarder. When the Las Vegas native was just nineteen, she contracted bacterial meningitis and was given less than a two percent chance of survival. In this poignant and uplifting memoir, Dancing With the Stars sensation Amy Purdy reveals the story of how losing her legs led her to find a spiritual path.

No matter what happens in your life, it’s all going to make sense in the end.” In that moment, Amy chose to live. In a near-death experience, she saw three figures who told her: “You can come with us, or you can stay. Her glimpse of the afterlife—coupled with a mysterious premonition she’d had a month before —became the defining experiences that put Amy’s life on a new trajectory after her legs had to be amputated.

She wouldn’t just beat meningitis and walk again; she would go on to create a life filled with bold adventures, big dreams, and boundless vitality—and share that spirit with the world. In 2014, Amy—the only competitor, male or female, with two prosthetic legs—claimed a bronze medal for the U.S. Paralympic team in adaptive snowboarding.

She then became a contestant on season eighteen of Dancing With the Stars, and viewers were captivated as the girl with bionic legs managed to out-dance her competitors all the way to the finale. Amy’s journey is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the capacity we all have to dream bigger, defy expectations, and rewrite our stories. Amy was given a second chance for a reason—to use her life to inspire others.

Her powerful memoir urges us to live life to the fullest, because we are all a lot more capable than we could ever imagine.