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COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- Mara Jade Taylor is only 8 years old, but she's already had more broken bones than she can count.

Mara Jade has Osteogenesis Imperfecta, or OI. It's also known as brittle bone disease.

When she was a baby, Mara Jade's mom said simply coughing or hiccuping would cause her to break a rib.

"When she was first born she was broken pretty much everywhere," Elisabeth Taylor, Mara Jade's mother, said. "One leg was underneath her armpit and the other leg was kind of sandwiched in, so they had to break both legs to kind of straighten them out."

Despite having fragile bones the third grader at Evans International Elementary doesn't have a fragile personality.

"I do stuff on my own with my wheelchair," Mara Jade said.

Mara Jade is unable to walk and only weighs 22 pounds, but she's proving to others that she can make her own way in the world.

"Even though she seems small, she has like a huge voice," Bethany Gerweck, her third grade teacher, said.

Mara Jade has learned that she is fragile and must be careful.

"If somebody tries to do something bad, like to my arms or my legs, I break a bone," Mara Jade said.

Elisabeth said the simplest things can cause significant damage.

"It's pretty easy in the fact that a beach ball is thrown at her and she goes to stop it and she breaks her arm. Anything can break her," Elisabeth said.

But she isn't letting her disease hold her back.

"Mara Jade is such a fun loving indvidual. She has such a positive attitude about life in general and she has even kind of like a spunky attitude to her," Gerweck said.

Classmates agreed.

"She's really funny, she tells lots of jokes in the lunch room," Shanelle Crawford, a classmate, said.

"She is funny and cute," Paige Glisson, a classmate, said.

Despite "being different" Mara Jade hasn't had any problems making friends and acts like a typical 8-year-old.

"We play hide and go seek, cops and robbers and stuff," Glisson said. "I'm a cop and she's a robber."

"We talk about funny stories and stuff," Crawford said.

Her friends said they know they have to be careful when playing with Mara Jade, but it doesn't bother them.

"Sometimes when we're running outside and we're playing a recess and we're trying to be careful not to run into her," Crawford said.

"I walk slowly when she's right next to me," Glisson said.

Mara Jade has learned to cope with her disease, but there are still times she gets frustrated.

"Other people are doing stuff that I can't do. Like on the slide, on the monkey bars, and do all that stuff, and I can't do that," Mara Jade said.

Her mom said she gets upset when her peers aren't accepting.

"She can get upset pretty easily if kids aren't accepting of the fact that she's in a wheelchair and she's smaller than them. They have a hard time, some kids are like 'no way, you're not eight, you're a baby,' and she'll cry at that," Elisabeth said.

But Mara Jade keeps a positive attitude.

"She loves school, she loves her friends, and she's got a good group of friends, she's very blessed," Elisabeth said.

And although she may be small, she's proving to be a big inspiration to others.

"She is very strong-willed and very positive about life, and so I take that in turn and try to be just as positive as she is about life," Gerweck said.

"I hope that people can take her optimism and, you know, even through difficult times we can be happy," Elisabeth said.