One of my favorite parts about launching this website is learning about my sister’s experience with BPES. We share a lot as sisters, but it still strikes me when I read her posts and think – “I had no idea that happened to her!” My sister and I have talked in the past about how difficult it can be to find sunglasses due to our BPES features. I have also had hat struggles that she describes in the last post. As a kid, I could rarely put on plastic kid sunglasses or a kid’s baseball hat and have it work on my face. As kids, we would attend an event, visit a museum, or go on a field trip and potentially get a free baseball hat. I used to be thrilled at getting something free, but I could never figure out why the hats looked so natural on my friends, but somehow just didn’t sit quite right on my head. I didn’t realize until years later that part of my struggles could be attributed to our BPES facial features. I also learned as an adult that one size rarely fits all. I am now much more selective when trying on hats and sunglasses, truly only buying something if it really fits and compliments my face. Thankfully there are many more options available compared to when we were kids in large part due to online shopping.

Her post struck me because it took me YEARS to realize that ear warmers work really well for my face and ears. I had an ear warmer my sister actually got me that I loved, but I think it fell out my bag at a movie theater in Amsterdam last year (devastating). This winter hopefully I won’t have the need to don headwear as I am in the tropics. However, I want to tip my virtual hat to my sister in all her BPES glory for rocking every kind of winter hat beautifully this season. Even though I will be spending this holiday season alone, I hope to rock my matching “SLAY” winter hat as well as she does in BPES solidarity.