A self-proclaimed “badass blind babe” has opened up about her disability and how it affects her life in bad and good ways – from dealing with trolls to improving her body confidence.
Jessie Wolinsky was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare disease that slowly causes blindness over time, when she was just seven years old.
The 30-year-old became legally blind a few years ago and has no peripheral vision, describing her eyesight as “tunnelling in slowly” until it disappears altogether.
Jessie, who has almost 50,000 followers (@badassblindbabe), is now using social media to highlight that “blindness is a spectrum” and explain why she doesn’t view it as a “setback”.
In a YouTube video published on Shera (@shera_oficl), a social media platform dedicated to empowering women, she talks about her journey to “finding happiness” in her life.
“Me just walking down the street with my cane is a powerful statement,” she says.
“It confuses people and they’re not used to seeing a blind person walking around or doing certain things like travel, so it definitely can get a lot of attention in that sense.
“I love that I’m able to be different and use this as a way to help other people accept things about themselves that they don’t love.
“Or the things about themselves that society tells them is wrong or bad.”
Jessie, who calls herself a “blind babe” says the most positive thing that has come from her disability is “recognising how little looks are”.
In the interview with Shera, she says: “We grow up in a world, especially women, where we have so many things pushed on us on how our body needs to look and just, you know, all these different things in terms of our value and appearance being so linked.
“Going blind has really flipped that on its head for me, because one day I’m not going to be able to see what I look like.
“So why am I spending so much time now with the vision that I do have stressing out about my appearance or not posting this picture because I have a wrinkle or a double chin, or whatever it is.
“It’s allowed me to be a little bit more free with my appearance.”
However, Jessie’s disability has brought challenges too, such as anxiety in having to be aware of her surroundings at night and tackling daily tasks – like reading.
The influencer, from San Fransisco, California, said: “The worst part is losing like my sense of independence.
“I’ve never been able to drive, it’s tricky for me to get around, being night-blind I feel very anxious in dark situations.
“Obviously as a woman we have to be aware of people trying to attack us and I’ve had people do some unfortunate things to me and take advantage of me.
“And it’s very, very scary.
“So in that sense not feeling like I can be as independent and not feeling like I can quite literally watch my own back, it does get very nerve-wracking in that sense.
“And I also have to constantly let go of things, so like a couple of years ago I could read books, now I can’t read any sort of regular size print, so I listen to audio books or large print books or Braille books or things like that.
“I’m constantly letting go of things that I used to be able to do.”
Jessie also has to deal with evil trolls online who leave negative comments that can linger in her mind for a long time.
One recent comment read: “U are inadequate they would have to dress u feed u drive u everywhere.” [sic]
Jessie said: “Just that word, inadequate, it’s been sticking in my head since I read that comment maybe a couple of weeks or a month ago.”
Although it does affect her, she tries to “not take it personally and try to use every single one of those interactions as a chance to educate people on the reality of blindness and that it is a spectrum.”
Jessie told Shera: “There are blind people who can see, there are deaf people who can hear, there are wheelchair users who can walk.
“You know, nothing is so black and white.”
But acceptance has been a long journey.
When learning the gravity of her declining vision, she suffered from suicidal thoughts, as well as abused alcohol and drugs.
She said: “[As a teenager], I was just kind of a happy go lucky kid who had all these envisions about my future and after that, I really truly felt like there was no way that I would be able to have any sort of life after that.
“It’s been a long journey to get to where I am now, to you know, find happiness in my life.”
Jessie has spent the time since working on self-love and acceptance, and now proudly talks about her disability.
She added: “I love it because it allows me to be different.
“Like I have worked so hard to get to a positive place in my life where I don’t view this as a setback, I really truly view it as something that helps the world.
“…I really, really like being someone who is different and getting to use this condition to find empowerment within myself and hopefully empower and inspire some other people to love themselves a little bit more.
“I think this world needs it.
“So it’s very very cool what I’ve been able to do with this disability.”
