My New Favorite Deaf Celebrity

You aren't going to see a ton of deaf people in the media. So whenever I see someone on TV with hearing loss I'm instantly drawn to their story. Many of you know I watch Switched at Birth for one reason- the ASL. So when I was on the ABC family website and I saw that the character Emmit, played by Sean Berdy was the weekly crush I clicked to get the scoop. Normally I wouldn't care about some teenage pretty boy, but because Sean Berdy is deaf I was curious what type of hearing loss he has. Was he born deaf? Does he use ASL exclusively? Are his parents deaf? When did he begin acting? All I could do was laugh when I clicked on the link and it said "Sean Berdy is such a heart throb! He has gorgeous eyes, great hair, and a charming personality. That is why he is our new weekly crush!"

Silly me! I forgot their target audience is half my age and listening to One Direction. And here I was interested in this guy's story or anything that he might have to say.

Then last August my best friend mentioned one of the contestants on Project Runway had an interpreter and a cochlear implant.



Say no more! I immediately started following the show and when they highlighted him on the Lifetime website it actually did elaborate about his life story this time. So that was neat.

Fast forward to this year and I saw this Duracell commercial, which features Seahawk's player Derrick Coleman and talks about the struggles he had growing up deaf and playing football.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2HD57z4F8E

I couldn't hold the tears back when I watched it the first time. I say first time because I have watched it many times. It's very inspiring. On top of that he responded to a letter that a little girl wrote to him about how she looks up to him and how he has overcome similar challenges in his life. So from that point on I was rooting for the Seahawks, and that was before they were in the SuperBowl. Granted, Richard Sherman's cocky rant was enough to make me want to jump ship, but as far as I am concerned Coleman's humility, even in the midst of all the publicity he has gotten, is enough to make up for it. If you go to ESPN.com you can find the front page story with more details about Coleman's journey. If you go to his Facebook page you'll find his most recent status update that says FAITH in all caps followed by many exclamation marks and the scripture from Hebrews 11:1-3. On top of all of that, he gave a shout out to a boy that graduated from SJ's school a couple years ago and he even posted a link to help raise funding for him to get a special football helmet designed to work with the Cochlear Implant.

How cool to have a deaf role model playing in the Super Bowl. I'm not the biggest Football fan, but I'll be rooting for #40 on Sunday! And to Coleman, in his own words; No Excuses. Play Hard. Have FAITH!!!