Rachel Mackenzlee Mayta lost her eye to retinoblastoma when she was just 18 months old. Determined to end the stigma against visible differences, she’s launched a range of funky prosthetics, including gold glittery ones, on TikTok.
The 33-year-old hairdresser from Oregon, US, said she wasn’t always so confident. Growing up she was bullied and given the nickname ‘Cyclops’, but it wasn’t until her mid-20s that Mayta really struggled with her self-confidence. Following surgery to replace the implant anchoring her prosthetic, she lost most of that eye’s ability to blink.
“A surgery where I had expected the outcome to result in more mobility of the eye and a more realistic looking prosthetic became the exact opposite. Prior to this surgery most people wouldn’t have even noticed my eye, but afterwards it was very apparent,” she told the New York Post.
Unhappy with how she looked, Mayta withdrew from society for almost a year before making a conscious decision to be self-accepting and to “only feed her brain positive thoughts”. She has since explored new options for prosthetics, sharing her journey with her 567,800 TikTok followers where her most popular clips have racked up more than 11 million views. “I love to make people laugh on TikTok and shed some light on what life is like having a prosthetic through humour,” she said.
Retinoblastoma most commonly affects young children, with leukocoria (whitening of the red reflex) being the most common presentation.
