"Show Me Your Ears!" by Shanna Groves (corrected)

"Show Me Your Ears!" by Shanna Groves

Today's guest post is presented by my friend Shanna Groves. She has a delightful approach to promoting Deaf and Hearing Loss Awareness.  As a good sport, Shanna is showing hers first.

SHOW ME YOUR EARS! To Promote Deaf and Hearing Loss Awareness 
By Shanna Groves / LipreadingMom.com

Official Page: http://LipreadingMom.com/Show-Me-Your-Ears     

How many of you wear hearing aids or cochlear implants? Do you like the way they look—do you show them off with gusto? Join me in my new awareness campaign Show Me Your Ears: To Promote Deaf and Hearing Loss Community Awareness. 

The idea is simple:

1) Take a picture of your ears, hearing aids, and/or cochlear implants. Even if you don’t wear anything in your ears, take a picture.
2) Email your photo to Lipreading Mom at sgrovesuss (at) msn (dot) com. Include the subject line: Show Me Your Ears. Include your first name, name of your hearing aids or cochlear implant product (if applicable), and how long you have worn them.
3) Watch my blog in the coming weeks. Your photo may be featured!

Sounds easy, doesn’t it? 

I am also promoting Show Me Your Ears on Facebook and Twitter  (#ShowMeYourEars). Please visit my pages, and help spread the word by sharing this page with your friends.
I have blogged extensively about my progressive hearing loss on this site and my initial reluctance to wear hearing aids or show them off to anyone. I was afraid of what people would think about them. Would they think I was unable to communicate with them? Would they ignore me? 

I made a decision: I am going to embrace my hearing loss. I’m going to show my hearing aids to the world. And so I do!

Here is a post I wrote a while back about my initial fear of showing my ears….

It took me two years before I’d let this much of myself show.
My bottle blonde hair
and palette of cosmetics
usually help me blend in with the other moms
who drive their children to sporting events
on a warm summer afternoon.
I turn the wheel,
hoping to avoid the stark reflection
that stares back in the rearview mirror.
A profile of me with the low ponytail says it all:
There is something different about me.
I am wearing hearing aids.

###

Shanna Groves is the creator of http://LipreadingMom.com, a blog inspired my her life as a hard of hearing mom raising three young children. When she isn't carpooling with kids or advocating for hearing loss awareness, she writes books and speaks professionally. Read more at www.ShannaGroves.com.

Shanna Groves
Author and Speaker
SHOW ME YOUR EARS! To Promote Deaf and Hearing Loss Awareness
http://LipreadingMom.com
www.ShannaGroves.com
sgrovesuss@msn.com