Learning from Lulu: Teen who survived shark attack on finding strength, becoming a champion for amputees
By Brittany Decker
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MOUNTAIN BROOK, Alabama (WVTM) — Lulu Gribbin, a teen from Mountain Brook, is known around the country for surviving a shark attack.
She has spent every day since then proving her resilience and using her story to advocate for others.
“Life might throw curveballs at us,” she said. “You never give up, and you just keep swimming.”
Gribbin was swimming in shallow water last June when a shark attacked her. She remembers the moment clearly.
“When I was attacked, I knew everything that had happened,” she said. “I was in so much shock that I didn’t feel it bite me.”
The reality hit moments later.
“I raised my arm out of the water, and there was just nothing there,” she said.
She lost a hand, a leg and the world she once knew.
Today, you can find her on a golf course, one leg planted, an adaptive attachment locked onto her club. She stands over the ball, takes a breath, and swings. Clean contact. Then again. And again.
She rebuilt her balance, her mechanics and her confidence alongside professional adaptive golfer Chris Biggins, who jokes that he has fallen more times than she has. During their first lesson, he asked if she was worried about getting hurt.
“No,” she told him. “I can fall down. It’s encouraged. Let’s go full force.”
Everything after June 7, 2024, had to be relearned.
“I just wanted to get better, and I wanted to prove the doctors wrong,” she said. “If they gave me a challenge, I would get it done as soon as possible because I’m very competitive.”
She learned to walk, then run. She returned to sports, tried new ones, and eventually worked her way back behind the wheel. With modified pedals and steering equipment, she earned her driver’s license.
“I love having my own freedom,” she said. “Driving, listening to music– it’s been fun, even if it doesn’t look like a normal teenage life.”
One opportunity surprised her: public speaking. Instead of fear, she found joy in it.
“When I do speeches, I make fun of people,” she said, laughing. “Your hands can’t spin in a circle, but my wrist can.”
She now uses her voice to advocate for amputees and to push for better resources. Through her Lulu Strong Foundation, she hopes to make prosthetics lighter, more functional, and more accessible.
“The Lulu Strong Foundation is on a mission to advance prosthetic technologies and cutting-edge therapies that aim to restore independence and confidence for amputees at speeds we previously never thought were possible. We are dedicated to empowering individuals and communities through compassion, resilience, and action,” the foundation’s website states.
The foundation officially launches this Friday at The Edge on Green Springs Highway, with family-friendly activities, live music and a chance to meet Lulu in person.
Her advocacy has already reshaped safety efforts along the coast. She helped pass “Lulu’s Law,” a new alert system designed to warn swimmers about shark activity.
“I was very thrilled to be able to implement this law into action,” she said.
She defines courage differently now.
“Courage is stepping into something you’re fearful of, but then stepping out fearless,” she said.
And in a full-circle moment, she returned to the water just months after the attack.
“Just keep swimming in life,” she said. “Keep going. It doesn’t matter what hard thing gets thrown your way.”
Because sometimes, she says, the very waves that crash hardest are the ones that carry you forward.
“Where there’s a storm, there’s always a rainbow,” Gribbin said.
This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting.
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