How Gigi Caruso Turned Her Hearing Loss Into Advocacy

Most people know Gigi Caruso for her celeb-beloved swimwear and lifestyle line Gigi C but what most people don’t know is Caruso’s lifelong journey with hearing loss that led her to entrepreneurship. Caruso was born with moderate to moderately severe sensorineural hearing loss and received her first pair of hearing aids at three years old. She couldn’t hear sounds such as waves crashing, rain falling or birds chirping until she received hearing aids called Lyrics at 16 years old. “The hearing loss community wasn’t very socially accessible growing up. I didn’t know anyone who also had hearing loss so I didn’t necessarily have an advocate in the community but my parents and brothers were a huge support system for me. They always encouraged me to embrace my hearing loss journey and instilled the confidence in me to advocate for it,” she shared.

One in eight Americans over the age of 12 suffer from some type of hearing loss but most do not find adequate support especially when it comes to work or schooling. Caruso found her hearing-loss to be a disability that most people didn’t understand how to accommodate. “I think one of the toughest challenges I’ve run into growing up with hearing loss is for me personally has been with the hearing aids that I grew up wearing. They made it feel as though I had an invisible disability since no one knew I had hearing loss unless I told them or I wore my hair up and they saw my hearing aids when I used to have over-the-ear ones. Due to this, people would just assume you are hearing them normally and can reply normally – it was very hard for my teachers to understand my disability because it wasn’t obvious and in front of them or sometimes people would forget. When I was going through one of my toughest times in high school and my teachers were not understanding of what I needed to be able to be a successful student, they were going against the accommodations I was requesting. Just because you couldn’t see my disability you can’t tell me to just sit in a classroom like every other kid and expect me to hear everything the same way others do,” she shared.

Because Caruso’s hearing loss prevented her from staying interested in activities that didn’t stimulate other senses outside of hearing, the ocean became her safe haven. A favorite pastime of Caruso’s growing up was spending time at the beach and in the water which is ultimately where she developed her love for swimwear. “I didn’t originally see it as something that was tied together, but the more I think about it and talk about it, I’ve realized that my love of water comes from my hearing loss which is the reason why I started GIGI C. It was tough being a young founder in general, but to have hearing loss on top of it made it even tougher because I was so worried about what people in the industry were going to think. It’s hard to speak up as a younger CEO but then adding hearing loss on top of that was a challenge,” she explained. “However, it’s something that I have been able to navigate and I’ve learned to speak up where needed despite any insecurities. As a full-circle moment, my hearing loss essentially led me to where I am now as a CEO and Founder of a swimwear company.”

Hearing loss advocacy can look like passing equal employment bills, ensuring closed captioning on television or media sites to proving hearing aids over the counter. Most of this work is behind scenes leaving the youth in the community unconnected. Caruso had felt a lack of support growing up with hearing loss but more recently she shared her story publicly and was surprised by the response which then led her to become and active advocate. “Becoming confident with my hearing loss enough to advocate for it really came about when I had first posted a video to my Instagram where I talked a little bit about my journey and getting my Lyrics. I had unexpectedly received an outpour of love and support through comments and direct messages from not only people who followed me but others in the hearing loss community that I had never connected with before. This was the first time I really felt a community around me and knew that I wasn’t alone in this journey and it motivated me to work towards being a pillar for others in the community.” This made her realize that she could do so much more in the community especially for kids and young adults as those are fundamental years when you are figuring out who you are as an individual.

Caruso has an open forum group where several of her followers who also struggle with hearing loss have conversations of support and education with one another regularly. Most recently, Caruso held an event on World Hearing day at The Grove for hard-of-hearing children and her family most notably made a donation to creating the USC Caruso Department of Otolaryngology specializing in children that hard-of-hearing. “I am working now on executing more events hosted for the community. In addition to this, I work to speak out about my story whenever I get the chance so that I can reach more people and let them know that hearing loss is not something that should hold you back, yes it is tough at times, but turn it into something that gives you strength and motivates you,” Caruso emphasized. “I turned my hearing loss into a positive, taking on the tough challenges and embracing them which has only made me a better person and entrepreneur. In many ways, my hearing loss provided me with a different kind of gift. Without even realizing it, the challenges I faced taught me resilience and to trust that I could adjust to new and difficult circumstances.”