Representation: You Love To See It

I’ve had glasses since I was a baby. I’m extremely farsighted to the point where I can’t really see anything without my glasses.

When I was four, I started to notice that not many other kids wore glasses. In fact, I was the only other little girl I knew who wore glasses. My stepfather, who I had recently met (the marriage happened a year later), noticed that I was sad about this, so he went to the store and got me a book where the protagonist was a little girl who looked a bit like me and wore glasses. I was so happy to read that. It became my favorite book, and we read it regularly.

Eventually, I started kindergarten, and I forgot about my self-consciousness about my glasses. (I got bullied for other things instead.) But I would still sometimes go back and read the book.

It wasn’t until college when I worked part-time in a preschool that I noticed a familiar book on the shelf. But the character wasn’t wearing glasses! I called my stepfather, and he confirmed my suspicions; he’d just gone to the store, found the first princess book, and drawn the glasses on with a marker!