Our Story

Hi, We are EYE POWER KIDS WEAR LLC. Thank you for visiting our site. We are a spunky little family and I hope you enjoy reading our story!

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In 2012 Our wonderful son Scott joined our little family. We soon knew something wasn’t right.

Scott was born with a congenital cataract in his left eye and at 4 weeks old had cataract surgery. He has worn a contact, glasses and eye patch for 7 years. 

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When Scott was about a year old we started Eye Power Kids Wear to help Scott grow up proud of his eye patch and glasses. I wanted him to grow up feeling proud and excited about who he is. 

To read more about Scott’s story visit: http://mylittlepirate.wordpress.com

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Through groups like little four eyes and other support groups we have been able to meet others who’s children wear glasses. This has been amazing and so much help!

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Having an infant in glasses is not always easy. Dealing with contact fit and glasses prescriptions, and eye appointment after eye appointment is just the beginning. I don’t mind the questions and explaining to people that many young children need glasses but that is where the idea of this project began. To help my son grow up proud of his glasses, and eye patch and to help others going through similar struggles.

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I want Scott and all those other kids out there in glasses/contacts and patches to grow up feeling cool! I want them to be proud of their glasses because glasses are AWESOME!  I want kids who don’t wear glasses to wish they did. As someone who started wearing glasses at a young age I understand what it is like and I want that to change!

We started with Kickstarter and had great success. We will forever be grateful for those first Kickstarter supporters. 

Now 6 years later we have funded 3 Kickstarter projects, sold to all 50 states and many countries and met more people than I could have ever imagined. We now have 4 children, 1 with myopia, Scott with his congenital cataract and 2 with amblyopia. (we have bad eye genes). 

Eye Power is so much more than a small business, it has become a place to meet friends and connect with others going through similar experiences. 

We look forward to what is to come! 

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21 thoughts on “Our Story”

  1. I love seeing these Happy Kids…My daughter was born in 2003 with congenital catacachs. She has had many procedures. Just last week she had a lense implant on her second eye and recovery has went well. Ella also has glaucoma which we have treated successfully to this point. She has shunts in both eyes and we hope that this strategy will continue to work. Ella started school early at the age of four, and is an honor roll student. She was diving off the diving board at 5, loves rock wall climbing, plays the piano, and is actually at the point of teaching songs to herself. My advice to parents who have children with these type issues is to not treat them any differently. We have been successful at treating her normally and allowing her to explore things such as dance, and girl scouts. although she has had somwhere between 10-15 procedures, she refuses to let her situation stop her from doing whatever she wants.

  2. Very cool – my 12 year old was diagnosed with amblyopia and strabismus at age 4. She has worn glasses ever since. Three and half years of patching and several weeks of vision therapy have not helped in her case. In the last year and a half we have found out that she has joint hypermobility – I knew there was something wrong with her joints but it took years to get this far….and the jhs could be the cause of her eye issues and why they have not resolved themselves…to further complicate matters she also has postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (diagnosed a little over a year ago). Despite her many struggles she is an awesome kid who does not mind being different and being herself. She works very hard to do well in school and a very cool kid. congrats on your new company – it is awesome.

    1. Tania,
      I just read your story about your daughter. I am on Jessica’s web site because I saw her on the news and I am involved in a non-profit out of Arizona called Visionquest 2020. http://www.visionquest2020.org I am helping as a volunteer as I have had eye problems all my life and several surgeries.
      I am very sorry to hear of all of the problems your daughter is having and so happy to hear all the love and positive attitude in your writing. Your posting caught me because my niece has POTS. She has been to the Mayo Clinic twice and she is 3 years into her journey with POTS. She is getting better. I am sure you have many contacts that are helping you, I just wanted to write to you and wish you all the best. – Kate Smyth in Portland (503)245-9391

  3. I saw your spot on the Today show this morning and thought it was great. My oldest daughter was diagnosed at birth with a cataract like your son and at ten days went into surgery to correct it. Afterword’s had to wear a contact and a patch on her good eye to strengthen the other. The thing I want you to know because your son’s story touched me so much, is that my daughter had all of this done 27 years ago. At age 18 she had lens implant surgery to replace the one that was taken out 18 year earlier. Today she wears contacts and glasses like the rest of us would with no issues. Understand when your son fights to have the contact in or the patch on, it will all be to assure he can see normal at age 27 like my daughter. She went through those things and it all paid off when the doctor who did her lens implant surgery told me we did an awesome job patching and assuring she wore her contact. Strengthening the eye is everything to assure your son can have this done! Please do what the doctors tell you, it will pay off for him in the long run!

    If you need any support or just an ear to bend, please know I’ll be here for you two. You have a wonderful little guy and with your help having a cataract will be just a memory. My beautiful daughter is a testament to that!!

    A supporting friend!

    1. hello! Your story is really inspiring .. please tell me how i can contact you .. because i have a very resistant 9 month old who’s patching isnt going well ..

  4. My husband saw your story this morning on the Today Show. FINALLY! !! This website is an awesome idea. My daughter was diagnosed at six months with severebilateral congenital cataracts. For 6 months my daughter was completely blind and we had no idea. The diagnosis and first round of surgeries were a whirlwind. Straight to contacts, patching, and now at 17 months bifocals. To say it is a daily struggle to patch and keep the bifocals on when she wears her contacts is an understatement. Kayln is a very smart and independent child who loves to test boundaries and be curious. My husband is getting better with the idea of being in public with the patches and bifocals. Kayln has finally started cooperating with wearing the patches…mostly because I finally discovered patches with cool girly designs. I LOVE these shirts. I try to treat Kayln like other kids. This is not a disability. I admit I also have those days where I don’t want the stares and the questions. She is starting to know she is a little different. I don’t want her to feel thatway despite the Inorance of some people. YES they are thick glasses. YES she wears a patch. YES she is a handful. So STOP staring and trying to see what is “wrong” with her. Nothing. She wears glasses…GET OVER IT!. I finally feel like someone else understands those days. Thats when I need a shirt too! Good to know all of this is worth it and we ceratinly are not alone.

    1. reaserj@gmail.com

      Its so great to hear from you! We love hearing from other cataract families. You should join the congenital cataract group and aphakic kids group on facebook. They are a great way to connect with other families. I totally understand how you are feeling and I hope our kids can grow up feeling cool and like they can do anything!

  5. What a wonderful concept! Thank you for this!
    My daughter has many eye issues including congenital glaucoma, cataract, optic nerve hypoplasia and macular dysplasia. She will always be legally blind but is doing amazingly well with what vision she has! We will eventually be getting the lens implant in her left eye and we’re working on getting her first pair of glasses (although I seriously doubt she will keep them on)!

    1. reaserj@gmail.com

      Thanks so much! Your daughter sounds amazing! Our kids are wonderful and amazing how nothing will hold them back! I was wondering if you would be interested in doing a spotlight story about your daughter? I Bet she will do great with glasses. Just remember to be consistent about putting them back on and she will pick it up! You can join the “little four eyes” group on facebook. They are a great support group and have amazing advise! We also just created glaucoma shirts!

      1. I’d love to do a spotlight story! I’m so very proud of my little miracle.
        Thank you for the Facebook group recommendation too! I’ve struggled to find a good support community for her various eye conditions. I can’t tell you how excited I was just finding your page, so this wealth of new resources is really exciting!

  6. A friend passed on the information after seeing your Today show spot the other day, and I am so glad she did! We found out just recently that our 4 year old son has coloboma of the optic nerve in both eyes. His vision in his one eye is 20/400 and may not be correctable. We have started patching this summer and it’s HARD work. It’s so hard to put a patch on a screaming 4 year old who says, ‘I don’t want to wear the patch. Everything goes dark!’ 🙁 Yet, I am constantly amazed at how well he navigates around the house while he has the patch on. (He refuses to wear the patch in public.) Kids truly are little miracles. And moms like you who share their stories and work to make the world a bit easier for the little ones who need a boost are what have kept me afloat over the years. Thank you. And best of luck to your daughter.

  7. We have very similar story! My son was born in 2011 with a cataract in his right eye. We now use the contact and patch 6-8 hours a day! These kids will grow up with so much empathy for others and such great character for all they have had to overcome on this journey! I am just SO excited to have found this site!! <3

  8. I came across your site and I would love to see if there is anything we can collaborate with you all on.

    My son, Jonas Paul, was born in March 2013 with a rare eye condition called Peters Anomaly … in his first year of life he had 9 eye surgeries and 2 cornea transplants.

    I feel like we are going along on a similar journey as you all and it has been so hard for my husband and I to connect with others that have a similar situation as ours.

    We also (similar to you guys) started a business after our son was born. We created Jonas Paul Eyewear (jonaspauleyewear.com) as we felt like the options for kids glasses were pretty awful and we wanted kids to feel cool and beautiful in their frames. So check out our site! Jonas is still a bit young to wear our frames but once he is bigger he wil!

    I feel your pain with all of the drops, putting contacts in, wearing glasses on a one year old etc … we are currently hoping to heal an abrasion on Jonas’ cornea with a bandage contact and I feel like we are constantly in a state of prayer that the contact will stay in and that he won’t rub it out etc. So I feel like we are in the same boat.

    Sorry for my long message, but I would love to try and connect with you guys and see if there is anything we can work together on and change the stigma of glasses to something that is cool and fun!

    thanks for sharing your story and putting yourself out there … I hope that we can connect.

    xo,

    Laura Harrison

  9. Kimberly Kohl

    Do you sell the patches? If so, I can’t find the link to buy them. My 12 month old was just diagnosed with a congenital cataract in her left eye. Surgery will be on July 24th then we will start out journey with all this. I want to purchase some patches now so I won’t have to worry about that later (and of course she needs to be stylish:)
    If you have any advice that would be great. If you don’t sell the patches but know someone who does and could give me the info that woul be fantastic.
    Thank you so much,
    Kimberly

  10. i was slightly relieved to come across your page.. i feel like everything is ‘googleable’ with the exception of what i’m going through. My son, Jax, has been in glasses since 20 months (-14 and -15 diopters).. we are testing him for Stickler Syndrome next month.. which only really puts a reason, or rather a definition, to this whole thing. I’m nervous because his eye is obviously growing which means the retina will continue to strain and if we’re lucky – not detach. Little history on the Mama Bear – 15y/o had a detached retina/sclear buckle impant, 35y/o had strabismus surgery to right eye and just learned (35 has been a good year…) that I have a cataract in the left eye.. ball of fun. i know things could always be worse, i know this.. but i’m so sensitive to all things eyes and know first hand the joys of bum balls and my sons vision is 2x as bad as mine.. and he’s 2. just sucks 🙁 i’m not sure if there are any support groups that you’re aware of but i’d love to talk to other parents about their experiences with highly myopic children…

    1. reaserj@gmail.com

      Im so glad you found our page! So sorry what you are going through. My rx is actually -11 and my son’s is +23! Its so hard dealing with vision problems in your own children. You should join the Little four eyes support group on facebook. Post about your son and within minutes you will get responses!

  11. I was born with inherited severe hyperopia and required surgery at 1 1/2 years of age to correct or risk going blind in my left eye…as my father did before surgery was available. I went through several months of patching and many months of check-ups. Having worn glasses since that surgery, I think it’s wonderful what you are doing. I wish someone like you had been around 40 years ago! You’re an inspiration!

  12. I’m so glad I came acros your website! My son 10 months old was recently diagnosed with congenital glaucoma it was been a journey. He has had one surgery and is having another the end of October! I was going crazy when I first found out all I would do is google as. Sometimes googling is bad lol then I found support groups and it has been a little easier to be able to talk to others going through the samething! I love your cause and hearing your story about your little guy

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