Mrs. Sunshine
At the moment of impact, my eye “deflated” and 12 surgeries later I was left with a damaged, completely blinded left eye…
I’m Mrs. Sunshine, a special education teacher and social media influencer in Los Angeles, California. I’m most known on Tiktok and Instagram for rocking fun prosthetic eyes and having a killer sense of style in the classroom.
I love being a ray of positivity online and in the lives of the students I teach. Outside of what I do online and in the classroom, I also enjoy snowboarding, hiking, hitting the gym, and playing a ton of video games. All of which I have no issues doing ½ blind. I credit this to the fact that I lost vision in my left eye when I was 5 and was an adventurous kid, so my body had to quickly adapt to being visually impaired.
Some people lose an eye due to retinoblastoma, others to diseases, I irrevocably damaged mine in a freak porch sweeping accident. One minute, I was sweeping my Nana’s porch with my brother, who was 3 at the time, and the next moment my grandmother was driving us down from her mountain cabin while I clutched a warm wash rag to my eye. I remember very little from my youth.
I remember nothing from when I actually lost my eye, but between Nana and my Mother, the voids in my memory are filled with their words. At the moment of impact, my eye “deflated” and 12 surgeries later I was left with a damaged, completely blinded left eye.
After my eye was given time to recover, I was fitted for conformers and eventually, my first prosthetic eye. When I first received it, a beautiful scleral shell that matched my functional eye perfectly, it was met with a celebration. Literally.
My mom organized a prosthetic eye party and invited EVERYONE. My mom went out of her way to ensure I knew that my eye was beautiful and never something to be ashamed of, but in spite of her efforts I did develop many insecurities related to being physically different from other kids. Getting bullied certainly didn’t help! That was the hardest part -not the surgeries or discomfort, but rather the mental battle of feeling comfortable with this unique part of myself that my family would praise and kids would mock.
Coming to love and wanting to share my prosthetic eye publicly took some time. In elementary school I would hide in my favorite teacher’s classroom during lunch, in middle school I would hide my prosthetic eye behind a shield of hair, but things started to change in high school.
Throughout highschool and college my “fun fact” in every class was that I had a prosthetic left eye. I wanted to be in control of the narrative surrounding what made me different. Once I graduated from both with high honors I entered into teaching, and I’m sure you can guess what was on my “Meet your Teacher” google slide. I didn’t start posting on social media until late 2021, and you guessed it, I’ve continually shared about my experience living with a prosthetic eye alongside my other typical content.
This past year specifically I’ve moved into a new area of normalizing prosthetic eyes. Alongside creators like @centerforocularprosthetics and @rachel.mackenzlee I’ve shared the beauty of embracing being different with fun prosthetic eyes.
When a prosthetic eye matches the other, the goal is to conceal the disability. I no longer want to hide my disability behind hair or a matching prosthetic. I want someone to look at me and see all of me. I want to show the world how lovely prosthetic eyes are. I want boys and girls, in and outside of my classroom, to know that it’s okay if you’re a little different -because Mrs. Sunshine is too.
Tiktok: @heymissteacher
Instagram: hey_missteacher
