Teen's website helps kids with vision problems feel less lonely
Ten days after Taliah Braun was born, her parents were told that she had a special eye problem, which caused her left eye not to develop fully. It means that she's completely blind in that eye. Since then, she has had to wear a prosthetic eye. The eye doesn't help her see, but helps to balance her face.Growing up, Taliah remembers she was a very confident kid, although she was blind in one eye. When she met new friends at the park near her house, she wasn't shy about showing her prosthetic eye. “I remember saying: ‘Look, I can pull out my eye!’ A lot of people would be frightened and say: ‘That's so scary’ or whatever, but I didn't really let that influence me,”she said.Despite her great confidence, Taliah felt lonely. She began looking for online spaces where she could connect with other kids with vision problems, but couldn't find any. So Taliah decided to create a space for kids like her.In January 2020, when she was 13, Taliah and her dad started thinking about Vision Village: an online space where kids could sign up and get connected with a pen friend who also shared a visual difference. “I wanted kids across the world to stop feeling as lonely as I did,”Taliah said.In June 2021, Taliah finally set up a website called Vision Village, which connects kids ages 6 to 16 with vision problems with one another. Since then, the site has grown to 30 members who have been paired with one another. She has helped dozens of people from around the world feel less lonely because of their visual differences.Taliah said the next step is to create a Vision Village app, which allows members to connect more Easily.
