When I was a child my grandma used to tell me that her mother’s eyes had two different colours, just like mine. I thought it was cool, it made me feel so proud and special.
Heterochromia was never a problem to me and I don’t understand people thinking it is.
Technically, my eyes have a different quantity of melamine, but to me, Heterochromia is more than that.
It is my great-grandmother’s gift and it is something who defines me forever, just like my tattoos but even more unique.
Heterochromia from Belgium x
“Yes, but why are you doing this?”
If I would ask for a penny for each and every “WHY” question I get during the process of heterochromia photography project, I would probably be able to support the whole project and photograph all heterochromia in the world 🙂
So … coming to the “WHY” part…
To be honest I see myself as a medium to express heterochromia. It can be various channels and there were not as many so far, that is why I stand out and get asked all those questions…
At the beginning I was curious, and now – I receive “thank you” emails every day and, indeed, it is empowering, it keeps me going, keeps me engaged, related, responsible, and it is not something that comes from me directly anymore, it is something that you, guys, trigger in me and I just keep going.I have heard so many stories and I could never imagine that such beauty as different coloured eyes could evoke so much trouble… make people feel insecure, neglected, rejected, change their lives in the most unexpected way…
I have heard so many stories and I could never imagine that such beauty as different coloured eyes could evoke so much trouble… make people feel insecure, neglected, rejected, change their lives in the most unexpected way…
So… the truth is that I simply find it important. I want to tell those stories, show heterochromia people, introduce them, transmit them, so than the rest of the population can just accept heterochromia instead of rejecting it… Confused mind say NO, so let’s not be confused anymore, we all are different and this is the only way to develop and become more, be bigger and rather focus our energy on growth instead of fighting the obvious.
Confused mind say NO, so let’s not be confused anymore, we all are different and accepting it is the only way to develop and become more, be bigger and rather focus our energy on growth instead of fighting the obvious.
Viva heterochromia! there are not that many unique things left… let’s just embrace it…
I was born with bright blue eyes, on 7th November 1995 in Sheffield, England. My eyes seemed completely “normal” and no one suspected that they would change. When I was around 12-18 months old, my left eye gradually started turning brown. My mum, as you can imagine, was extremely worried and took me to the hospital. I can’t remember much, but I’m told that the doctors did lots of tests – apparently a change in eye colour can sujest problems with your internal organs.
After many many tests, everything seemed to be fine and the doctor told me it was like a freckled or a birth mark. So that’s what I went with for the first 14 or so years of my life. Whenever anyone asked what was “wrong” with my eye, I simply replied “it’s a freckle”. I’ve had the weirdest questions: “did you eat your twin?”, “are you two people?”, “are you blind?’. But my answer was always the same.
Life wasn’t particularly pleasant at school, I was bullied a lot because of my “odd eyes”. I hated them, despised them in fact. It wasn’t until one of my high school biology teaches brought up the subject of heterochromia, that I really started to research it. I soon found out that it was very unique and the majority of online opinions were very positive.
It took a while for me to be comfortable with my eyes, still at the age of 20 I am no where near 100% confident about them. But I now tell people its a mutation called heterochromia and I am happy that I am unique. I also quite enjoy being a “mutant”, it makes me sound more interesting than I actually am!
I just hope any other heterochromia-kids out there aren’t going through the bullying I went through, I hope they know they’re very very lucky and very very beautiful.
Jade.
I’m 40 years old now, but it’s taken me about 35 years to embrace my eyes…
Being adopted almost added onto the dealing of being weird – different when I was a little girl, people always pointed it out and asked me silly questions about did I see the same in each eye… My brothers called me a witch….
I could be talking to a stranger when suddenly they would interrupt me and say “hey! You’ve got 2 different coloured eyes”! – kinda felt like a freak show at times…
Do I feel different from others? Yes!! And it’s taken me this long to love it!! I feel it’s a blessing and I feel it’s a mark of something precious, mysterious!
I’ve just become a grandmother, and trust me, I watch my grand daughters eyes all the time to see if she has changes! I totally love it!
To be honest, i never got bullied because of my eyes, since i was little, the only reactions i got on my eyes were: “Cool, it’s special, wooow you’ve got a red/orange spot in your eyes how come?”
Then I told them it was in-fact more Brown but sometimes with the light/sun it appeared more orangey-red .
Most of these times I was like “o right i have this other Color in my eye :p and People notice … And most of these times they think it’s awesome… But still it makes me no different from you :). I even felt sorry for some, cause they thought I was more special or something, I could just feel it, they also wanted such special eye(s) but I am just as normal/special as them . The most negative reactions ever were “that’s odd”
But I don’t really calculate them as negative… Cause in a way, it ís odd to have multiple colored eyes I guess 🙂
Heterochromia Photography Project - Book 