I had a lovely chat with the ACUVUE team at Britmums Live earlier this year. I love ACUVUE lenses and so was instantly drawn to their stand. I thought I was pretty clued up where contact lenses are concerned, but I hadn’t realised they could be worn by children as young as 5. It’s pretty amazing the technology has come on so far that that’s possible.
I remember vividly the trip to my first appointment at the opticians, I was 8 years old, stood at the bus stop with my Mum and little brother and couldn’t read the ‘For Sale’ sign on a house over the road. Prior to that I’d fainted when reading to my teacher. It was no surprise to anyone that I needed glasses and I was actually quite pleased ( as crazy as that sounds now ), I couldn’t wait to show my friends.
I don’t remember even really noticing that I wore glasses until I was much older. As the years went on I became quite badly short sighted and my lenses got thicker and thicker. Luckily for me lens technology has moved on since then and I now get my glasses lenses made as thin as possible, but they are still noticeably thick and quite heavy. I often have a mark on my nose after wearing my glasses from the weight.
At around 15 year old I remember looking in a mirror and thinking I was quite pretty without my glasses, it was at that point I decided to get contact lenses. The lenses brought me a new found confidence and the all round vision made sports much easier and more enjoyable.
My first contact lenses were hard gas permeable lenses. It took weeks to get used to them, and I had to clean them every night but they were completely worth it. My prescription makes my vision wearing glasses less than perfect, but a contact lens is much, much better as they are closer to my eye. For me contact lenses were not just a vanity thing, they improved my vision quite drastically. With the contact lens came a new confidence in myself, they were completely life changing for me. As vain as it sounds I don’t think I’d have had the confidence at University to go out drinking with friends wearing my big, thick glasses. I would have hid behind them, too shy to be the real me.
I wore the gas permeable lenses until I was about 21 and then switched to daily soft lenses. They fit my busy lifestyle perfectly, require no cleaning as you throw them away after one wear and are very reasonably priced. The first time I wore my daily lenses for a long period was on my honeymoon, I can still remember being in the pool in Disney World, looking around and thinking how amazing they were.
Since having my children I suffer from quite dry eyes and over the years have tried every brand of contact lens on the market. Currently I’m wearing Acuvue Moist and occasionally the TruEye, which are definitely the best for me.
I obviously hope my own children don’t need glasses, but I take a lot of comfort knowing that if they did, the glasses for kids are much prettier then they were when I was young and contact lenses are a great option, especially if they still do lots of sports as they do now.
Do you wear contact lenses? Were they life changing for you?
I wrote this review while participating in an influencer campaign on behalf of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care and received a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate
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