“My book is really to just let other people know that you’re not the only one,” Gentry student and author Rachel Leonard.
GENTRY, Arkansas — Rachel Leonard recently became the Princess of America Teen Heartland after winning a pageant in February, but before that, she had a long journey of dealing with hearing loss.
“I was born with hearing loss in my left ear, and I didn’t get my hearing aids until I was seven years old,” Rachel said.
The Gentry student, now 14 years old, decided she wanted to make a difference for kids who are in the same situation as her, leading her to write a book called “The Color of Sound.”
“My book is basically about what it’s like before you get your hearing aids,” Rachel said. “For me, I was missing out on so many things, like I couldn’t hear my mom whispering ‘good night’ to me, or like the leaves outside.”
Her book, which was published in January 2025, is already making an impact on children.
“I actually went to the Intermediate School and there was a little girl and she had hearing aids, and she was like, ‘Oh, I didn’t know other people have hearing aids,'” Rachel said. “My book is really to just let other people know that you’re not the only one.”
Her grandmother, Helen Birkes, will never forget the day Rachel got her hearing aids.
“She laughed, and she was running, and she stopped, turned around, and she said, ‘Mama, I can hear my footsteps. I can hear the birds sing.’ And to see that was amazing,” Birkes said.
That amazing feeling is something over 36 million children with hearing loss deal with in the U.S. Rachel wants everyone to know that they aren’t alone and encourages them to see an audiologist as soon as possible.
“I just feel that everyone with hearing loss, their world is definitely grey before they get their hearing aids, and they’re just missing out on so much,” Rachel said. “I really just hope that if you’re struggling with hearing loss, go get it checked out because whenever I was little, I failed every test, and they told me that it was just their system. There was an error, and I could hear.”
Her family is so proud of how far she has come, and what she continues to accomplish along the way.
“I’m very proud, very proud,” Birkes said. “If she’s going to do it, she’s going to do it right. I know Rachel said one time, ‘It’s one thing to know you’re helping people but to actually hear that you’re helping people. It makes me feel very humble.'”
“The Color of Sound” is now available to purchase on Amazon and they tell us she has already sold many copies. Rachel is still making her way around local schools to read her book.
