I’ve never much liked wearing makeup. Even as a little kid, the closest I got was covering myself in glitter and electric blue paint. Now, I often have to wear stage makeup for dance performances, but I still try to keep the ‘warpaint’ to a minimum.

Many people like makeup because it helps them feel more confident in themselves, and that’s wonderful. For me, though, makeup just doesn’t feel right. I suppose it just doesn’t align with the kind of femininity I choose to portray. Part of that is probably because I’ve never felt much pressure to conform to the unrealistic beauty standards which permeate so much media today. And much of that is because Stargardt changes my perception of beauty in the first place.

Since I can’t rely solely on sight, I’m free to appreciate the world’s audible and tactile landscape. I value symmetry of form and motion, the balance of sound and silence like positive and negative space. That’s part of the reason I love dance so much: it’s rhythmic, visceral, thunderous. It’s an avenue of artistic expression that doesn’t require sight to execute and appreciate.

That’s also why I love playing guitar. Now that I’ve memorised my chords and scales, I can combine them to make infinite melodies, playing with tension and release as one note yields to another. Like dance, music isn’t bounded by sight. In fact, some of the world’s best musicians have been blind.

Because my idea of beauty isn’t so linked to external appearance, I don’t feel a compulsion to ‘paint an inch thick’ like many other young women do. I’ve dealt with negative body image problems in the past, and I do still feel self-conscious sometimes. But I’ve learned over the years that as long as I’m healthy, my appearance doesn’t matter too much. I don’t care about others’ appearances, so why should they care about mine? If someone is shallow enough to judge me solely on my appearance, I likely could do without their friendship in the first place.

Being blind has given me the confidence to wear my sunglasses without fear of people judging me, to wear clothing that makes me happy, to style my hair how I like it, all without any regard for what people might think of it. And when I do dress up nicely, I do so to make myself happy.

I think that’s something that everyone should be able to experience.

Plus, wearing sunglasses all the time = never having to deal with mascara, eyeliner, fake lashes, etc., so I get to sleep in an extra half-hour on busy dance competition mornings. Really, blindness is quite an advantage after all.