Frida Kahlo was 18 years old when the bus accident occurred in 1925.
She had been studying in Mexico City and was traveling with Alejandro Gómez Arias when the bus collided with a streetcar on September 17. The injuries were extensive and led to repeated medical treatments throughout her life.
Kahlo had originally considered studying medicine, and her accident ended those plans. During her long convalescence, she began painting seriously, using a mirror and a specially adapted easel. Her early self-portraits therefore emerged directly from the conditions of her recovery.
Some accounts describe her as 18 because the accident happened before her nineteenth birthday in July 1926. This is distinct from her age when she completed her first self-portrait, which was also 19.