I was born with hearing loss.

But I wasn’t diagnosed until the age of 4. My mom had noticed some signs such as not responding or responding to people who didn’t talk, in other words, mouthed what they were saying. After some tests, I was diagnosed with Sensorineural Hearing Loss. I ended up going to a school with kids who suffered from hearing loss, whether that was cochlear implants or using sign language. I felt like me, I felt like I was able to connect on a personal level with people who could understand me. Until I grew older and lost contact with my friends. There were times where I felt lost, felt annoyed that I wasn’t surrounded by people I needed.

It wasn’t until 6th grade where I sat with a stack of paper and a pen. I didn’t know what I was going to write, I didn’t do book planning, I didn’t do anything but write. I wrote until I had over 60+ pages. My English teacher at the time read my book and loved it. Offered to print a copy and read it to her other class. That, of course, hyped me up. My name was getting out there. Until years later, I found the original copy, reread it, and absolutely hated it. The writing was terrible, the storyline was a bit jacky, and it felt rushed. Aside from that, I didn’t feel any purpose in the story and thought that it was useless. I was in the 11th grade when an idea popped into my brain. Now, I love that minds can be as creative as possible, however, my mind can get extremely overwhelmed with too much thought.

This time, my idea included hearing loss. This was new to me, as I’ve never thought about building a brand revolving around that topic. After a lot more thinking, I decided that I was going to write a superhero novel and the hero was going to wear hearing aids. I wrote around 20 chapters but I lost interest. I forgot about it for a while and then thought of a completely different story, but it was a fantasy novel with the main character wearing hearing aids.

To make this long story short, I’ve told myself that I was going to build a different franchise regarding hearing loss. My main audience is those with hearing loss, those who feel lost or feel distant from the world. Some may hate the fact that they have to depend on hearing aids or sign language so my goal is to at least give them some insight. Let people know that we aren’t different, we are loved and cherished just as much as everyone else is.