For years, Hannah and Shane Burcaw have invited millions of people into their lives, sharing their relationship, marriage and everyday experiences through their popular online platform, Squirmy and Grubs.

Their story has always challenged assumptions.

Hannah is able-bodied, while Shane lives with spinal muscular atrophy, a genetic condition that significantly affects his muscles and mobility and means he uses a wheelchair. Together, they have built a life that includes marriage, travel, work, friendship and countless ordinary moments that many couples experience.

Now, they are entering one of the most meaningful chapters of all.

The couple has announced that they are expecting their first child, revealing that Hannah is already 20 weeks pregnant and that their baby is due in January.

After years of openly discussing their relationship and the misconceptions surrounding interabled couples, the announcement represents a deeply personal milestone for Hannah and Shane.

How Hannah and Shane first met

Hannah Burcaw was a freshman at Carleton College in 2016 when she first came across Shane.

At the time, she watched a documentary about Shane and learned more about his life with spinal muscular atrophy.

What caught Hannah’s attention wasn’t simply his story or the challenges he faced.

It was his personality.

She was drawn to Shane’s humor, confidence and approach to life. Rather than seeing him only through the lens of his disability, Hannah became interested in the person behind the story.

Eventually, she decided to send him a message.

It was an unconventional beginning to a relationship, but the connection quickly developed.

The pair began dating and spent considerable time navigating a long-distance relationship before eventually building a life together in person.

Their relationship eventually led to marriage.

Hannah and Shane tied the knot in 2020, beginning another chapter in a relationship that had already attracted considerable attention online.

Building a life together in the public eye

Hannah and Shane eventually became widely known through their YouTube channel, Squirmy and Grubs.

Their videos offer an inside look at their relationship and everyday experiences as an interabled couple.

The channel has allowed them to discuss subjects that are rarely shown in traditional media, including accessibility, travel, independence, marriage and the practical realities of navigating everyday life together.

Their openness has also created an opportunity for conversations that can sometimes be uncomfortable but important.

For Hannah and Shane, however, their relationship has never been simply about educating other people.

At its heart, it is their life together.

They have built a home, developed careers, traveled and created a community of followers who have watched their relationship evolve over the years.

The couple has also expanded beyond YouTube, including their podcast Junkyard Mayhem and their book Interabled: True Stories About Love and Disability, from Squirmy & Grubs and Other Interabled Couples, which was published in January 2025.

Through these projects, they have continued sharing their experiences while giving other interabled couples an opportunity to tell their own stories.

Challenging assumptions about interabled relationships

One of the recurring themes in Hannah and Shane’s story has been the number of assumptions strangers make about their relationship.

Because Shane has a significant physical disability, some people have questioned whether the couple’s relationship could be romantic in the same way as anyone else’s.

Hannah and Shane have repeatedly spoken about these misconceptions.

They have explained that people sometimes assume disabled individuals cannot experience romantic attraction, form meaningful partnerships or imagine a traditional family life.

The couple has worked to challenge those ideas simply by living their lives openly.

Their relationship demonstrates something relatively straightforward: disability does not erase a person’s emotions, personality, ambitions or desire for companionship.

At the same time, their story also highlights the importance of avoiding assumptions about any couple based solely on appearances.

A relationship cannot be fully understood by looking at two people from the outside.

Hannah and Shane had already talked about becoming parents

For years, followers have wondered whether having children would eventually become part of Hannah and Shane’s plans.

The couple had previously made it clear that parenthood was something they could envision for their future.

They also discussed the fact that starting a family can be a complicated journey for many couples.

Eventually, Hannah and Shane went through IVF, but their earlier attempts were unsuccessful.

That experience gave them an understanding of how emotionally complicated fertility journeys can be.

So when they finally had good news to share, they approached the announcement with both excitement and empathy.

The pregnancy announcement

The couple shared their long-awaited news on Instagram on Wednesday.

Hannah and Shane revealed that they are expecting their first child in January and explained that Hannah was already 20 weeks pregnant.

The announcement was particularly meaningful because they had chosen to keep the pregnancy private during its first months.

That decision gave them time to experience the early stages of pregnancy away from the attention that comes with being public figures.

But eventually, they felt ready to invite their followers into the new chapter.

They shared that they had missed being able to celebrate the experience openly with their online community and hinted that there was much more of their journey still to share.

For longtime followers, the announcement was more than a celebrity pregnancy update.

They had watched Hannah and Shane meet, fall in love, get married and build a life together.

Now they were seeing the next chapter begin.

A thoughtful message to people facing fertility challenges

One of the most touching aspects of the announcement was the couple’s decision to acknowledge people who might find pregnancy announcements difficult.

Because Hannah and Shane had experienced unsuccessful IVF attempts themselves, they understood that good news for one person can sometimes bring complicated emotions for someone else.

They expressed sympathy toward people who are currently trying to conceive or dealing with their own fertility challenges.

That message added an important layer to their announcement.

Rather than presenting their pregnancy as a simple story of celebration, Hannah and Shane recognized that journeys toward parenthood can look very different from one person to another.

Their own path had not been straightforward.

That makes the pregnancy especially meaningful for them.

Why their story resonates with so many people

Hannah and Shane’s relationship has attracted a large audience partly because it challenges expectations.

But their popularity is not only about disability.

At its core, their story is about two people who found each other, built a relationship and continued moving forward despite circumstances that sometimes made their journey more complicated.

Their relationship also illustrates how much can change when people are willing to look beyond assumptions.

Hannah did not approach Shane as a stereotype.

She saw his personality first.

Over the years, the couple has also shown that an interabled relationship can contain the same mixture of humor, affection, disagreements, adventures and future plans found in many other marriages.

Their upcoming transition into parenthood adds another dimension to that story.

A new adventure begins

Becoming parents will undoubtedly bring significant changes to Hannah and Shane’s daily lives.

There will be new routines, new responsibilities and countless experiences they have never encountered before.

For Shane in particular, accessibility and practical considerations will naturally be important parts of preparing for a baby.

But the couple has spent years finding creative ways to navigate everyday life together.

That experience may serve them well as they prepare for parenthood.

They have already learned how to communicate openly, solve practical challenges and adapt to circumstances that do not always fit conventional expectations.

Now they will apply those lessons to raising their first child.

Their announcement is about more than a pregnancy

After nearly a decade of knowing each other, six years of marriage and years of sharing their lives online, Hannah and Shane are preparing for perhaps their biggest adventure yet.

Their story has traveled from an unexpected first message to a relationship, a marriage, a successful online community and now a growing family.

Along the way, they have faced curiosity from strangers, challenged misconceptions and shared both the joyful and difficult parts of their journey.

Their pregnancy announcement therefore feels like a natural continuation of the story they have been telling for years.

It is not about proving anything to anyone.

It is simply about two people who love each other and are excited to welcome a new member into their family.

Looking ahead to January

For Hannah and Shane, the coming months will undoubtedly be filled with preparation and anticipation.

Their followers will likely get to watch another chapter unfold as the couple prepares for their baby’s arrival.

After choosing privacy during the first half of the pregnancy, they now appear ready to share more of the experience with the community that has supported them for years.

And there is something especially meaningful about the timing.

The same couple whose relationship once prompted strangers to question whether they could build a conventional future together is now preparing to become parents.

Their journey offers a simple reminder that people’s lives rarely fit neatly into the expectations others place on them.

Hannah and Shane found each other in an unexpected way. They built a marriage on their own terms. They turned their experiences into a platform that helped others understand interabled relationships. And after a difficult fertility journey, they are now preparing to welcome their first child.

For longtime fans, it is a moment worth celebrating.

Congratulations to Hannah and Shane as they begin this exciting new chapter. Their story is a reminder that love, partnership and family can take many different forms — and sometimes the most meaningful journeys are the ones that unfold in ways nobody could have predicted.