Daily Inspiration: Meet Michelle Hu

Today we’d like to introduce you to Michelle Hu.

Michelle, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’ve been a pediatric audiologist here in San Diego for over 12 years. Something unique about me is that I grew up hard of hearing myself.

I was first identified with bilateral hearing loss around the age of 3-4 years old. I was fit with hearing aids soon after but am not/NOW a bilateral cochlear implant user. My hearing loss was progressive – due to Enlarged Vestibular Aqueducts (EVA) and Pendred Syndrome. Every few years my hearing would worsen. When this happened my senior year of college – my mom suggested that perhaps I’d be a good audiologist because I knew what SOME patients COULD experience.

Many people thought graduate school would be easy for me because of my personal experiences – but I still had to study, work hard if not harder on course work, listening/hearing our professors and patients in clinic, etc just like the rest of the students.

Years later – I feel like my personal experience lends to my ability to relate and be a role model for others with hearing loss and source of strength and hope for parents of DEAF/HARD OF HEARING children.

I created Mama Hu Hears on Instagram where I share personal and professional experiences with hearing loss and the field of audiology. After receiving tons of the same questions from parents of DHH children, I created an online program titled “My Child Has Hearing Loss, Now What?” to support parents through their family’s DHH journey and to educate hearing healthcare professionals in order to help optimize their quality of care.

My mission is to help children who are DHH realize and grow up knowing that they can achieve anything and everything they dream of by supporting and building confidence in their parents first. When parents are given the tools, resources and confidence to make empowered choices for their children and families, the journey becomes a unique one that they navigate themselves.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Of course, I’ve had ups and downs throughout my life and in my relationship with being DHH. My hearing levels are as a result of EVAS and Pendred syndrome. I was identified with mild hearing loss as a toddler and it progressed to the point where I had bilateral profound sensorineural hearing loss by age ten. I was audiologically speaking a cochlear implant candidate. My parents weren’t ready for cochlear implantation as they were wary of the technology still and I was doing well in school. They didn’t know how hard I was working though (like a duck paddling furiously underwater just to look calm, cool and collected on the surface of the water).

Luckily I wasn’t bullied in school often but I’ve had my share of not being in fully inclusive communities. It’s mostly just that people don’t know or haven’t been around a person who is deaf/hard of hearing so I’m on a mission to educate.

I created @mama.hu.hears on IG while on maternity leave with my second daughter. Patients had been reaching out to me asking questions like “How do you hear your baby at night? Do you wear your devices?” etc. My patients were growing up and having kids of their own! I’ve been able to help by sharing personal and professional experiences but what I didn’t realize was how much it would help and heal me. I’ve transformed from calling myself hearing impaired to deaf/hard of hearing. I’m not impaired. Nothing is WRONG with me or needing to be fixed. I’ve come a long way in being more confident, feeling empowered and now on a mission to help.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’ve been in clinic for 12 years but now recently am diving into reaching out to the world via my IG, @mama.hu.hears. I want to help parents of DHH children go from doubt, fear and anxiety to feeling confident and ready to make EMPOWERED choices throughout their family’s DHH journey. I want to give them all of the tips, tricks, resources and ingredients to create their own unique journey. Every family/dynamic is different. I’m definitely not telling them to do things the way I did, but rather to take the resources, all of it and pave their own way.

I’m known for being the deaf audiologist. I’m known for sharing my heart, my experiences. I feel like my entire life and experiences are optimized – parents see me as a light, hope that their children can and will have amazing lives, achieve whatever they want. Kids see me as a role model, a safe space to vent about being DHH and ask me questions on what I’ve done in certain situations. I talk a lot about mindset – suffering is optional, finding the silver linings and celebrating the small wins.

Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
My parents treated me just like they treated my older brother who has normal hearing. We were expected to do well in school, be nice humans and respect our elders. No one babied me – so I had high expectations for myself to achieve and succeed. I didn’t know what I was missing – so I was a happy kid. I loved my hearing aids b/c they gave me access to sound, access to small auditory details. Same with cochlear implants.

My friends and family have been rooting for me all along the way, my patients/families, coaches, husband.

FYI all photos taken by friend Erin Brant from The Leo Loves (photographer)

Contact Info:

Image Credits:
Erin Brant @ The Leo Loves photography