Glass Half Empty: Are We Prejudiced Against Glasses-Wearers?

I was prescribed glasses when I was nine years old, due to my family’s genetic predisposition for terrible eyesight and my proclivity for reading extremely long fantasy novels in semidarkness. I was dismayed when the optometrist gave me The Diagnosis: I would never again take in the world through my unmediated corneas. Everyone would think I was a nerd! (Everyone was right…) However, as the years progressed and I graduated from ugly blue plastic glasses to ugly pink plastic glasses to much less ugly black plastic glasses, I stopped caring as much about the spectacle of my spectacles and acclimated to my eyesight protruding two inches from my face. 

At the beginning of ninth grade, along with growing out some very unflattering bangs, I also made the decision to throw my glasses by the wayside like a remnant of my misspent youth. I’m kidding–it’s because I was tired of pushing them up my nose when in dance rehearsal for Carrie, the 2022 Sequoyah fall musical. I finally gave in to the long-loathed idea of contacts, despite having groused many times, Why would I want to stick tiny pieces of plastic in my eyes? Anyway, I showed up to school on my first day sans glasses and was shocked by the difference. (Not only in terms of my expanded field of vision–I had an anxiety attack during B block because I could see everything!) Some people had forgotten I’d ever worn glasses. Others asked, Are you sleeping enough? (I have perpetual dark circles under my eyes—another genetic trait—and I guess they were previously hidden by my frames.) Still others congratulated me on my “improvement”; thanks, guys – I’m still the same person. In short, my interactions changed pretty noticeably in my post-glasses life. And because I’ve now been suffering from glasses withdrawal for more than a year, I thought I’d speak to a few fellow students about their experiences with—or without—glasses to see if our experiences overlapped. 

First up, I talked to freshman Eva Famosa-Enemoh ’27, a glasses-wearer kind enough to share her own experience. Famosa-Enemoh started wearing glasses in eighth grade with slight trepidation: “I was a little wary of looking odd, because there are a lot of stereotypes of people wearing glasses looking completely different, and I didn't want my appearance to change that drastically.” She also commented on the propagation of the glasses-wearing nerd stereotype, though her feelings are complicated. “It [the stereotype] can be a little mean in terms of a high school bully versus nerd [situation]. Being the nerd is not a bad thing… but I think nerds can be portrayed as a little obnoxious, a little out of touch.” (For more information, consult my previous article: “Stop Trying to Make Fetch Happen: The Elusive Nature of the Accurate High School Movie.”) She suggested this fear of being picked on may prevent young kids who desperately need eyewear from getting glasses, and encourages them to overcome their hesitation so they can stop bumping into walls. As Famosa-Enemoh told me, “I thought, ‘Oh, so this is how people have been seeing.’ I didn't really mind that.” 

Next, I spoke to Ila Brookshire ’27, who provided a unique perspective on this topic from her position as a reluctant glasses-wearer. Brookshire was prescribed glasses in fifth grade but was hesitant to begin wearing them due to the less than attractive options created for kids, and still refuses to wear her glasses. “I am not enthusiastic about wearing the [glasses] I own right now,” she told me, “They're way too small and make my head hurt… I'm hoping I can get a different style of glasses, but the chances that I'll wear them all the time are very low.” She also brought up another downside to glasses: the field of vision for glasses-wearers is limited due to the omnipresent frames a couple inches away from their eyes. When asked if she expected people to view her differently if she began to wear her prescribed glasses, she said wryly, “I have a reputation as a know-it-all, and I think my weird glasses would elevate that.” But when asked if the glasses stereotype was detrimental to those considered nerds, Brookshire had a refreshing take: “It might hold some truth because all the glasses-wearing people I know are nerds… but that doesn't mean ‘nerd’ in a negative light. All of the people I know who wear glasses are amazing people and so smart.” To conclude, Brookshire assured me she supported people no matter their choice of eyewear, but admitted, “I’m a little biased” (as she has many glasses-wearing friends).

Finally, I spoke with Sophia Schafer-Wharton ’26, who provided some interesting personal anecdotes about her experience with glasses. “When I first got glasses,” she said, “everyone in my class thought they were fake glasses because there was another kid in my grade who wore fake glasses for attention… And I was like, ‘they're real.’” And though Schafer-Wharton and others in her life are now acclimated to her glasses, she still worries about damaging her lenses, which are often expensive to fix. In terms of the stereotype of all glasses-wearers as hopeless nerds, she put it bluntly: “Whether or not you wear glasses has to do with whether or not you have bad eyes. It has no correlation to your intellectual capability.” And Schafer-Wharton encourages people to not question their peers about the appearance or disappearance of their eyewear: “Don’t pry.”

So with the insight I’ve gained from these various lovely people and their eyewear, I’ve seen (no pun intended) some common threads. Yes, we may prejudge the bespectacled beings in our lives, as glasses don’t really fit into our conformist notions of beauty–but then again, what does fit? For better or worse, glasses-wearers can be subjected to the “nerd” stereotype, and therefore targeted and picked on by those blessedly unbothered by astigmatism and the like. (And though glasses-wearers like me may happen to be nerds, we still don’t appreciate being called out on it.) And there seems to be a lack of glasses-wearing characters in the media we consume, though we’ve seen a shift thanks to the likes of Harry Potter, Velma from Scooby Doo, and Sadness from Inside Out (my personal role model). And perhaps in time, we’ll be able to welcome more optometry into our lives and start viewing the glass(es) as half full.