When life gives you lemons, you’re supposed to make lemonade. But when life gave Maddie C. a broken vertebra, she demanded to see life’s manager.

Recently, Maddie broke her T12 vertebra when in a car crash. If this break doesn’t mend, the injured person can find themselves with loss of feeling from the waist down—or worse, permanently paralyzed. Doctors have created a back brace for situations like this which prevents patients from further damaging their spines and thankfully frees them from their otherwise prescribed months of bedrest.

There’s just one problem: Unless you’re going for that Koopa Troopa look every day, the back braces are pretty ugly. It screams “medical device,” which definitely isn’t a look any high school student wants to rock. That’s when family friend Sarah stepped in and turned Maddie’s back brace into a badass steampunk corset.

According to Maddie’s mom in an article on EPBOT, Sarah descended upon Maddie’s backbrace with glue, paint, and determination to give her friend some flair. Sarah, who designed sets for a steampunk production of A Christmas Carol, turned a medical necessity into an object of desire. All Maddie needs is a monocle, so she can reign supreme at any steampunk convention she attends.

Check out the photos in the gallery, below. Promise us you won’t be injuring yourself to look this good.

h/t EPBOT

Image Credits: Linda C. via EPBOT