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Since I knew my deaf identity since birth, it wasn't hard for me to be comfortable, confident, and independent in a hearing world.

Growing up, I was always involved in the deaf community.

If I'd been born into a hearing family and went to a public school, I would have probably felt much more isolated, and being deaf would have become my identity.

I was raised to be an independent woman, not the victim of anything.

I'm a very independent woman.

I am fourth-generation deaf, which means everyone in my immediate family is deaf. So I grew up always having 100 percent accessibility to language and communication, which was wonderful and something so many deaf people don't have.

We have over 25 deaf individuals in my family.

There are people who are born deaf and grow up deaf who don't speak at all, and some of them have told me that they resent a little bit that I do speak. But, you know, I have to be myself. I have to do what I'm comfortable doing.

I am the fourth generation of being deaf.

I'm an independent woman and a feminist.