How To Become the Hero of Your Own Life Story
“I don’t use the word ‘can’t’ because I don’t believe in limiting myself. I am able. I am capable. I am strong.
Never think less of yourself because society expects you to behave a certain way. We decide our own limits.
I have chosen to have none.”
-Amanda McDonough
Actress, Author and Inspirational Speaker Amanda McDonough may have lost her hearing as a child, but she didn’t settle for the life of a deaf person. She is ready to be heard and seen. Trust me, I had the pleasure of experiencing her amazing energy in person.
I met Amanda at the National Publicity Summit in New York when she pitched her book and public speaking skills to me for publicity purposes at this “Meet the Media” event. Imagine a beautiful, vibrant young woman walking up to you with a big smile and a pitch phrase like, “Hi, I am an actress and inspirational speaker and I can tell your audience how I lost my hearing but found my voice.”
For a few seconds, I was stunned. Did this amazing young woman just tell me that she is deaf? I definitely wouldn’t have known if she hadn’t just told me. Nothing, absolutely nothing gave it away. She communicated with me like any other person although she couldn’t even hear me. “How do you know what I am saying to you, I asked?” She read my lips, she explained, and we went on having a “normal” conversation.
She was a rock star, I decided right then and there. With that, I was more than willing to help her put out the message about her book which tells her inspiring true-life story. Here’s an introduction of how Amanda’s hearing loss appeared, however, to get the full story, we highly recommend that you read her book, which can be purchased on Amazon.
Around the age of two, Amanda developed a passion for acting after watching a TV show with her mother. Acting became her obsession and her destiny. When she entered preschool at 2 and a half, she became the playground queen with her big personality and high energy, and just like that she became the leader of the pack, so to speak. A role she thoroughly enjoyed. She even became a bit bossy, she revealed.
Her first “acting” performance came when she was reading a Dr. Seuss book to her father, who was amazed by her reading skills at that young age, only, she wasn’t reading, she had memorized the book and just acted as if. He noticed when she didn’t turn the right pages she “read” from.
In preschool, she was a little star and enjoyed her popularity and the praise she would get, but soon it would become clear that her road in life would turn out differently than anticipated.
At 4 years old, during sensory tests at preschool, it became apparent that something wasn’t right with her hearing. The follow-up doctor’s visit confirmed a mild hearing loss diagnosis. In denial, she decided she didn’t want anyone to know because she didn’t want to be different and so she acted as if she could hear everything, which, as time went by, became harder and harder to pull off. In order to compensate for her hearing loss, Amanda became an overachiever. She had to be perfect, she figured, to convince everyone that nothing was wrong with her. Emotionally, she kept a distance from everyone wanting to be close to her, so they wouldn’t find out her secret. A heavy burden to carry at such a young age…
Learn more about her emotional journey and how she taught herself to speak, lip-read as well as sign after becoming deaf and mute in her book Ready to be Heard-How I Lost My Hearing and Found My Voice.
Find out how she fought for her independence, got straight A’s in school, managed to finish college and entered the workforce as well as enjoyed a successful acting career with roles in films such as Switched at Birth, Speechless, Bad Judge, just to mention a few. The tell-all book follows her inspiring journey to find a balance between the hearing world she was raised in and the deaf culture to which she now belongs.
The book, among other subjects, covers handling life challenges, loss, unexpected change, bullying, discrimination, and diversity, as well as how to best navigate hearing loss and live your best life. Amanda also shows readers how to communicate effectively with a deaf or hard of hearing person when you don’t know sign language and gives tips on how to learn sign language.
Amanda has been a speaker and resilience trainer for organizations and companies such as the U.S. Airforce, Cal Poly Pomona, UC Riverside, Saddle Ranch Church, Diamond Ranch High School, and many more.
Visit her website here to get to know and hire this thought leader as a speaker at your next event: https://www.readytobeheard.com
Certain images used in this article are courtesy of Amanda McDonough.
