When her eye didn’t develop in the womb, a little girl was born with an appearance that was different from other kids. She was mercilessly teased for it but has now found an outlet through movement as her mother raises funds to help her.
Myah Hauxwell was born with microphthalmia, which means that her eye didn’t develop in the womb, and she was born with a tiny eye. However, the condition makes it so she looks like she doesn’t have an eye at all.
Although she has lived with the condition all her life and has had a typical childhood, Myah has been teased and bullied by other children because of her different appearance. Her mother, Lauren Hauxwell, wants to change that.
Lauren is willing to do whatever it takes to give her daughter the “normal” appearance she has been searching for since she realized she was different from other children.
What Has Myah’s Life Been Like?
Myah has undergone many different surgeries during her life aimed at giving her a prosthetic eye. When she was three, she became the first person in the UK to have an eye created from her stomach fat.
The young girl is now nine and has undergone 24 surgeries for her eye, each one leaving her with scars, stitches, or a blue eye. When Myah was one, she had a prosthetic eye fitted, but her face collapsed because of the weight of it.
After all her surgeries, her family is now trying to raise funds to have a bionic eye fitted. The only person who does the eye is in the US and working closely with the family as the UK’s NHS. Lauren shared:
“The person we are seeing in America is the only one who does the bionic eye, it’s unique because it has a chip in it which reacts to sunlight, so the pupil moves and dilates. Given everything that Myah has gone through, I want the best for her.”
Lauren wants her daughter to have a normal childhood in which other children do not call her “ugly” or exclude her from activities because of her appearance. Fortunately, Myah has now found some confidence in soccer.
How Has Myah Built Her Confidence?
Lauren shared that her daughter recently started showing an interest in women’s soccer and particularly admired the Lionesses and players Jill Scott and Mary Earps. These women inspired her to join her school soccer team.
Myah’s mother believes that the sport is building her confidence because she is learning to go in for tackles and be confident in the game, which translates to Myah having more confidence off-pitch.
Lauren confirmed that Myah loved being active and running around like any other child. Talking about her interest in soccer and how it was affecting Myah, Lauren said:
“She’s seeing that women can do all the things that men do, too.”
Lauren gushed about how magical it felt for Myah to come off the pitch in her kit and know she had played to the best of her abilities. She also said that her daughter forgets all her other stresses when playing.
Lauren takes pleasure in seeing her daughter come off the pitch smiling. Although Myah has recently begun building her confidence, it has not always been easy for the little girl who was teased whenever she left the house.
Lauren admitted that, at one point, getting Myah to leave the house was challenging because she noticed how people pointed and stared at her. When she was young, Myah didn’t know what people were saying, but as she got older and began to understand, she found it challenging to be out in public.
While Myah received hateful comments from strangers, her mother and other loved ones always tried to ensure she knew how beautiful and perfect she was. In a recently posted Facebook photo on Lauren’s page, many people commented on how “gorgeous” Myah is.
She may have support from all angles, but Lauren believes that the most important thing is for parents to teach their children how to approach people who are different from them. She believes the world is not always the same for everyone and that parents should teach their children how to treat others fairly.