Alongside Dr. Jennifer, I also wear hearing aids, and I have since I was a little girl. I remember friends in my fourth-grade class asking me what was in my ears after getting my hearing aids and awkwardly telling them, “It’s not that big of a deal, um… bye!”
While my childhood self was apprehensive about hearing aids, I know now as an adult that she’d be amazed at how advanced hearing aid technology has become. The fact that the devices I wear now are so much smaller and more powerful is still amazing, even now!
From hearing the rain outside for the first time to doing the work I love now, hearing care has had a huge impact on my life. My hearing aids provide massive help for me and all of my patients in our day-to-day lives, so I wanted to share my story as well, to encourage more people to get their hearing looked after sooner rather than later.
Finding My Passion in Audiology
My family has a long history of hearing loss, as everyone on my dad’s side had some form of hearing challenges; I knew it would come my way eventually, but by the time I needed hearing aids, I was only nine years old.
Despite my family background and hearing aids/cochlear implants being regular parts of my entire life, I didn’t think I’d ever get into audiology—I didn’t decide on it until my senior year of college, after my dad told me to shadow my own audiologist.
I had no idea what I wanted to do after college, so I did as he recommended… and the rest is history!
Helping people enhance their hearing in my line of work has become such a huge passion for me. For some patients, seeing that I wear hearing aids (and a microphone when I’m testing hearing) gives them that thought right away—“Oh, she’s doing things to help herself out. Maybe I can do that, too.”
Addressing the Stigmas
As a little girl, I was conscious of feeling different with my hearing aids. That stigma has traveled through the years, and people often associate hearing aids with retired, older people. Nowadays, that’s changing.
In my opinion, hearing aids are assistive technology akin to glasses. Nobody looks at you differently for enhancing your eyesight with glasses to do your job better; why should they view hearing aids differently?
Recent advancements in technology will help change the viewpoint of hearing care, especially with the latest news about Apple’s hearing aid-like features. It’s my hope that more young people will start taking care of their hearing earlier as a result.
Advocating for Representation
Something that I’m passionate about regarding hearing aids and hearing care is representation in the media.
You’d be surprised how much something as small as seeing a young person wearing hearing aids can mean to a child coming in to see us for hearing care.
If young people with hearing aids and hearing challenges are not seeing themselves in the marketing and social media spaces, they may feel that they can’t pursue care until they’re in the older generations of individuals.
Seeing younger people with hearing assistive devices in media like films, TV shows, and even commercials can make a world of difference.
