Molly Burke

Listening Length: 3 hours and 5 minutes In an audiobook like none you’ve ever heard before, blind YouTube star Molly Burke speaks with authenticity and candor about being a purple-haired, pink-loving fashion and makeup lover in a seeing world. Diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, Burke has been legally blind since age five, and became completely sightless as a teenager. Here, she tackles the preconceived notions we have around blindness, her struggles with bullying and anxiety, inclusivity, how she built her successful influencer business (with over 1.8 million followers), and what it’s really like to travel the globe with her service dog, Gallop, now that everyone has an emotional support animal. (Hint: Really hard!) This is a beautifully voiced, honest, and rousing journey of a young woman who has made it her mission to make us see her and the disability community in a totally new way.

From social media star and disability activist Molly Burke, a vulnerable and witty memoir on navigating the challenges of being a legally blind woman in an ableist worldWhen Molly Burke was four years old, she was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare degenerative eye disease that causes gradual and complete blindness, forcing Burke to conceptualize the world differently. Growing up disabled didn’t stop her from playing sports, speaking publicly, or becoming a rock-climbing instructor, but it was other people’s narrow perceptions of her that held her back. Today, Burke is a speaker, content creator, model, author, and advocate whose mission is to help foster community for anyone feeling isolated, misrepresented, or misunderstood. Unseen is Burke’s story in her own words and an inspiration to those who have been stigmatized or are feeling alone in their struggles to speak out. Burke chronicles her journey as a disabled woman, business owner, and entertainer, illuminating not only what her experiences have taught her, but also what she wishes the world understood about her world and the world of others in the blind community. Part memoir, part rallying cry for better representation, Unseen recounts Burke’s life and experiences fighting against the expectations society set for her as a blind woman, and in doing so, helps readers find their voice, strength, and inner purpose.