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INSPIRATION
A New Kind of Beautiful is fictional, but also deeply personal, as it was inspired by my husband’s aunt Lil, who lost most of her sight by the time she was sixteen. Born in South Africa in the 1930s, her parents hid her away. She was told to keep quiet and out of sight when guests came, she was, a ghost in her own home. It was only after her parents died, and she joined her sister in Australia, that she learned to use a cane and cook a meal. It was the first time she lived in a home she could call her own. The first time she fell in love. She was sixty. I asked her once what her childhood was like and received a one-word answer: Fine. Lil didn’t have the words to describe what grief felt like any more than she could explain how freedom felt. Growing up, no one had ever asked her how she felt. She hadn’t been encouraged to access the parts of herself that felt anger, fear, sadness or confusion. What would it have been like for 16-year-old Lil, I found myself wondering. And what was life like now for a teen with low vision. Was the world still inhospitable? Writing this story helped me find the answers. Spending time with, and learning from, people who were losing, or had lost, their sight allowed me to write a novel inviting teens to think about how they see the world, and how together, we might create a kinder, more inclusive one. |