Life in music: songs and lyrics that help me spill my brain
VICTA Young Ambassador Grace Hill has found her love of music, lyrics and song writing has played a key part in supporting her mental health. Finding a lyric you relate to can bring a sense of shared understanding. Grace shares with us the songs that mean the most to her and the reason they resonate with her. We'd like you to add to Grace's playlist by sharing the songs that have had a positive impact on your mental health. We've saved Grace's choices as a playlist on our YouTube channel so that you can listen to them and we'd [...]
Our hair workshops continue with Anna Cofone
Written by Monique Richards, VICTA Intern Tuesday 2nd of August was the second hair and care workshop with Anna Cofone, an international session hairstylist working on big name editorials, advertising and film with stars such as Dua Lipa and Lana Del Ray. The workshop was held in the same location as before in East London which made it easy to navigate to. In the workshop Anna briefly went over the topics we covered in the last workshop for the benefit of the new participants who did not attend the previous session. We all had our brushes and combs laid [...]
Monique’s art gallery
My name is Monique. Here is some of my art work I have created over the years. I’ve always been an artistic individual from a very young age. I started really honing in on my art more seriously when I took the subject for GCSE in school. In these classes I learnt different techniques and mediums of art I could work in. I don’t think that having a visual impairment restricts my ability to do art. I believe that having differences encourages individuality that makes someone’s art unique and stand out. Left: Pencil drawing [...]
Kissing the sky: How Kiss FM makes me feel like anything is possible
By Grace Hill What does 'no limits' mean to you? For me, it means finding something special in amongst the challenges you face. A piece of magic that makes you feel like you can achieve anything, whether that's in reality or in your dreams. If you're expecting the story of a blind girl who has climbed Mount Everest or won the Paralympics, get ready to be disappointed. Because, if I'm being brutally honest, I find it very hard to pair the concept of 'no limits' with my vision impairment because I'm scared of becoming a cliché. I don't [...]
Pushing through your limits – my return to goalball
By Jack Tomlin I recently joined Winchester Goalball team. I have loved goalball since I was 11 and was a passionate member of my school team, but when I left school, I also left goalball. I missed the sport and the friendships that came with it and this year, I knew I wanted to join a team. I got in touch with Winchester and decided to attend their next training session. My excitement soon turned to apprehension when I realised that I would have to get the train by myself, with a change at a busy station. Like [...]
Beauty for the Visually Impaired
By Mahalia Creft My journey with makeup has been somewhat of a rocky one. As a young child, makeup seemed to be that thing that I would just never pick up or get good at. In fact, I began renouncing makeup, in the name of defiance. To learn to do makeup always seemed like such a hard feat. One of the ways in which my visual impairment affects me, is that I am unable to move my right eye outwards, so when applying makeup, I am unable to see a large portion of the right side of my face. [...]
Meet our new young ambassadors for 2022!
Introducing the new young ambassadors for STRIVE 2022 Each individual brings something unique and insightful to share about how they don’t let their vision impairment stop them from doing what others can and how they manage life with no limits! Meet… Monique Richards Hey, my name is Monique. I’m an intern at VICTA helping to support and coordinate the ambassador team with their articles that will be going up on the student portal. I also do volunteering for VICTA activities. I am interested in quite a variety of creative activities such as art, which [...]
Hair care workshop with Anna Cofone
(Picture: Variety of styling combs and brushes along with hair pins and hair doughnut placed on a table) Anna Cofone is a freelance hairstylist working with celebrities such as Dua Lipa and Lana Del Rey and alongside brands such as Adidas and Topshop, so we were all very excited to have access to her expertise for the day! Anna started her workshop for blind and partially sighted people demonstrating how to care for and style hair, as growing up with a family member who is blind, it's something that really meant a lot to her. During [...]
