Brimmer was born in Mexico City, the daughter of Sari and Michel Brimmer, Austrian Jewish immigrants who traveled to Mexico to seek refuge during Nazi persecution. Gaby was born with cerebral palsy, which impacted her ability to communicate, as she was unable to speak and only able to move her left leg and foot.  

In 1955, when she was eight years old, Brimmer enrolled in Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation Center elementary school, where her teacher recognized her talent with words and encouraged her to become a writer. In 1967, when she was twenty years old, Brimmer enrolled at a public school in Mexico City, where her Language Arts teacher identified her talent and pushed her to pursue writing. That same year, aided by her mother and her caretaker Florencia Morales, Brimmer started writing poems, using her left toe to type on a typewriter. In 1971, she was accepted into the Social and Political Sciences department at the National Autonomous University of Mexico as a Sociology major, but she did not graduate from the program.  

In January 1979, with the help of Elena Poniatowska, Brimmer published her autobiography Gaby, the first of three bestselling books she would write about her life. She also worked with producers to repurpose her autobiography into the movie Gaby, a True Story (1987), which earned Golden Globes and Oscar nominations. An English version of her autobiography was published in 2009. 

In 1989, Brimmer created the Association for the Rights of People with Motor Disabilities, which provides counseling, medical, and psychological services to people with disabilities. She also worked with a number of other organizations that advocated for disability rights and accessibility.  

On May 25, 1996, Brimmer became Vice President of the board of directors of the Mexican Confederation of the Physically Handicapped and/or Representatives of the Mentally Handicapped AC. A year later, in June 1997, Brimmer was awarded the position of "Representative of the Committee of Women with Disabilities" Latin American Region, by the World Organization of Persons with Disabilities (OMPD). 

Brimmer passed away in 2000, but her legacy continues. In 2016, the Gaby Brimmer National Center for Rehabilitation and Educational Integration was created in her honor, with the goal of helping disabled children achieve their full potential.  

Sources:  

“Gabriela Brimmer’s 75th Birthday.” Google, September 12, 2022. https://www.google.com/doodles/gabriela-brimmers-75th-birthday. 

“About Us: Gaby Brimmer.” ADEPAM. Accessed June 30, 2023. https://adepam.mx/inicio/gaby-birmmer/. 

Presidencia de la República. “Gaby Brimmer National Center for Rehabilitation and Educational Integration.” Gobierno de México, May 18, 2016. https://www.gob.mx/epn/en/articulos/gaby-brimmer-national-center-for-rehabilitation-and-educational-integration.