🎬 Casting Call
Beth Holmes & Elizabeth Vitale
NOW CASTING: NATIONWIDE SEARCH
Independent Film “FAMILY TRIP”
Los Angeles, CA // Summer 2026
SEEKING: Young Girl, 8-11 Years Old
with MINIMAL TO SIGNIFICANT SIGHT LOSS
*previous acting experience not required*
PARENTS/GUARDIANS can submit to: vitalecasting@gmail.com.
with the subject line: “FAMILY TRIP Search”.
Please also include in the body of your email:
- Name/Age/Height
- Your location (city & state)
- A recent photo (can be a selfie)
Lights. Camera. Authenticity.
This summer, something beautiful is happening.
An independent film titled Family Trip will be filmed in Los Angeles in summer 2026. Casting directors Beth Holmes and Elizabeth Vitale have launched a nationwide search for a young girl, ages 8-11, who has legal blindness to portray the character of Abby. No prior acting experience required.
Parents or guardians can submit:
- Child’s name
- Age
- Height
- City and state
- A recent photo (a selfie is fine)
Send to: vitalecasting@gmail.com
Subject line: FAMILY TRIP Search.
Let’s pause and just appreciate this for a moment.
They are not looking for a sighted actress to “play blind.”
They are looking for a blind girl to play a blind girl.
That choice matters.
The Long History of Getting It Wrong
For more than a century, Hollywood has told stories about disability — but rarely with us, and almost never through us.
There’s a powerful documentary called Code of the Freaks that examines how disabled characters have been portrayed across film history. At the end, there’s a striking montage: nondisabled actor after nondisabled actor winning Academy Awards for portraying disabled characters.
Some of the most famous examples include:
- Daniel Day-Lewis winning Best Actor for My Left Foot
- Patty Duke winning Best Supporting Actress for The Miracle Worker
- Dustin Hoffman for Rain Man
- Tom Hanks for Forrest Gump
- Eddie Redmayne for The Theory of Everything
The pattern is so common it has a nickname: “Oscar bait.”
A nondisabled actor portrays disability with great intensity. The performance is praised as brave. Awards follow. The disabled community? Still mostly shut out of leading roles.
This isn’t about attacking talented actors. It’s about asking a deeper question:
Why is disability considered a powerful acting challenge for nondisabled performers… but not a legitimate professional lane for disabled actors themselves?
The Tropes We Know Too Well
Disability in media has often fallen into predictable categories:
The Inspirational Hero
The “overcomes all odds” character who exists to make nondisabled audiences feel uplifted.
The Object of Pity
Fragile. Dependent. Defined by suffering.
The Villain
From Captain Hook to countless scarred antagonists, disability has often been coded as moral corruption.
The Magical Blind Person
Extra senses. Mystical wisdom. Preternatural intuition. (Spoiler alert: we’re just people.)
What’s missing?
Ordinary humanity. Complexity. Humor. Flaws. Desire. Boredom. Leadership. Messiness.
Growing Up Without Mirrors
As a blind kid, I rarely saw people like me on screen who were simply living. Not symbolic. Not tragic. Not saintly.
Just human.
There were very few examples of blind characters portrayed as full, rounded individuals navigating friendship, family, ambition, and ordinary chaos.
When children don’t see themselves reflected authentically, something subtle happens. The imagination narrows. The sense of possibility shrinks.
Representation is not cosmetic.
It is developmental.
Why This Casting Call Matters
When Family Trip commits to casting a blind girl to play Abby, they are doing more than filling a role.
They are:
- Creating opportunity.
- Expanding industry norms.
- Signaling to casting directors everywhere that lived experience matters.
- Telling children with impairments, “You belong here.”
Authentic casting shifts power. It builds professional pipelines. It opens doors not only for one actress — but for writers, consultants, crew members, and future stories yet to be told.
And perhaps most importantly, it tells the audience the truth.
Because authenticity changes performance.
It changes nuance.
It changes posture, rhythm, physicality, instinct.
It changes everything.
A Quiet Revolution
We are living in a moment when more creators are recognizing that representation should not be performative — it should be participatory.
The disability community has extraordinary talent. Actors. Directors. Writers. Producers. Story consultants. Comedians. Influencers. Scholars.
The problem has never been lack of talent.
It has been lack of access.
Every time a project like Family Trip makes this kind of casting commitment, it chips away at a century-old barrier.
And that makes me deeply hopeful.
Spread the Word
If you know a young girl between 8 and 11 who is legally blind — or parents who might — share this opportunity.
Email submissions to:
vitalecasting@gmail.com
Subject: FAMILY TRIP Search
This is how industries change.
Not all at once.
But role by role.
Story by story.
Child by child.
And maybe — just maybe — somewhere a blind little girl will see herself reflected not as metaphor…
But as the star of the story.
” Inclusion isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s a strategic advantage. “
Dr. Kirk Adams, Ph.D.
Advocate, Leader and Keynote Speaker on Disability Inclusion & Leadership
Leading the Way to Accessible Innovation
Institute for Sustainable Diversity and Inclusion (ISDI)
Executive Director
Strengthening individual and organizational capability for creating diverse, inclusive and equitable workplaces.
Innovative Impact, LLC Consulting
Managing Director
Impactful Workforce Inclusion Starts Here
American Foundation for the Blind
Immediate Past President & CEO
To create a world of no limits for people who are blind or visually impaired.
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