Racing Beyond Barriers: Keenan Tully’s Journey with Hearing Loss and Inspiring Others

{Shari} Welcome to this week in Hearing. I am Shari Eberts co-author of Hear & Beyond: Live Skillfully with Hearing Loss. And I will be your host for this episode. Today we have a terrific guest and one I’m very excited about. Keenan Tully. Keenan is a professional race car driver and the founder of unDEAFeated, a brand that aims to motivate and inspire kids, teens, and even adults who feel like their hearing loss is a barrier in their life. Keenan grew up with hearing loss and was bullied throughout his schooling in England. He battled stigma for many years, but eventually he decided he was not going to let his hearing loss hold him back. In 2021, he moved to the US to chase his dream of becoming a professional race car driver, and in 2022 launched unDEAFeated to spread awareness about hearing loss and to help motivate people of all ages to chase their dreams, just like he is doing. So thank you, Keenan, for being here to talk about your hearing loss, your journey, and to share what you’ve learned with your community. So every person with Hearing loss has a story, and I was hoping we could start off with yours. If you can tell us a little bit about your background with hearing loss, when it started and all of that. Yeah.

{Keenan} Thank you so much for having me. This is great. So my hearing loss started, I mean, guessed from birth. I was born with perforations in my eardrums, which never healed over. And so, growing up, my parents actually never really realized that I had hearing loss until I was about ten or eleven years old. And that’s when I got my first set of hearing aids. So that helped me a lot. But then there was one time in high school, back in the UK where a teacher told me to remove my hearing aids. That actually made me stop swearing them for the next seven years. And that had a massive impact on my confidence, on how I saw the use of hearing aids. And I was scared to wear them, scared about what other people might think of me wearing them, or how might look, or how my friends might think of me. It took me about seven years until I was just turned 21, and then that’s when I then got my next set of hearing aids. And so throughout that period of time, I had to decide for myself whether or not I was going to let that teacher kind of decide my future. And. That decide whether or not I was going to stop me from chasing my dreams. And so one day I had to make the decision, and no, I wasn’t going to. And that’s when I then made the decision to move over here to continue chasing my dreams of becoming a race car driver. And I then launched my brand last year, and here we are today. That’s terrific. Good for you. So what was the teacher thinking? Why did the teacher want you to take your hearing aids off? His reasoning was that they were distracting other students. I mean, still to this day, I do wonder why he took that approach instead of realizing that hearing aids is something that I needed and he could use it as a way to educate the other students about about hearing loss or something like that. And I don’t know. I still question it to this day. I don’t know why he asked me to take them out, really. It’s quite scary because teachers need education about people’s disabilities, and it’s kind of worrying to think if that happens elsewhere in other schools and other countries and stuff. Very disappointing to have that coming from a teacher. So I’m glad you were able to sort of put that behind. Yeah, for sure. Well, I know I battled a lot of stigma when I first developed hearing loss, so I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about your experience with stigma and how you handled that. Yes, it was very tough. Even when I turned 21 and I got another set of hearing aids, again, it was tough getting used to it because, say, the first six months, it was hard to get used to them. And I was worried constantly about how I looked and how people saw that. And that mainly stemmed from that teacher telling me to take them out. It was a tough battle. But then I realized that there’s so many other people out there in the world today that wear hearing aids, or they wear something in their ears, whether it’s earbuds or headphones or something. So walking around the streets, nearly everyone is wearing something in their ears, which in today’s society makes it a lot easier to feel like you’re actually fitting in with other people when you’re wearing hearing aids. I do think the stigma there’s less stigma there now, but it is still a problem. Yeah, absolutely. So talk a little bit about how your hearing loss impacted your career aspirations. My hearing loss actually turned into a big positive for me, especially with my racing, because the racing gave me an opportunity to not have to worry about out speaking to people. Like, I could throw my helmet on and be in my own world for 30 minutes to an hour racing around a track and not have to worry about anything. And so, yeah, it actually made a big positive impact on my life. And that’s what I’m now trying to spread awareness about, is that your hearing loss doesn’t have to be a barrier, it doesn’t have to be a negative, it can be a positive, and it can help you, can actually help you in a lot of areas in your life that you might not even think about. Yeah, no, that’s very true. So I imagine, though, that race car driving is very loud. Does the noise bother you or like, how do you protect your hearing when you’re doing that? Well, when we’re driving, we’re actually wearing earbuds because that’s how we communicate and talk with the team, with the spotters, with the crew chiefs and stuff like that. So that actually helps to kind of drown out some of the race car noise. But then even still, I only hear my race car, I can’t really hear the cars around me. So that means I have to be more visual when I’m driving as well. So I have to be looking around more and seeing where other cars are on the track. So the actual, like, being inside a car racing with my earbuds in and my helmet on, the noise from that doesn’t actually bother me, but it’s when I’m outside of the car and there’s 20 cars going past me, like, when I’m watching a race, that’s when it’s very loud. I bet I can imagine. Are you able to do anything to protect your hearing? So are the earbuds sort of protective or do you wear headphones or how do you think about that? Do you mean like the earbuds when I’m racing myself? Yeah. So it’s quite difficult because my hearing loss, I have to have them turned up basically to max volume to be able to hear what my crew chief is saying. And because they’re not adjusted to my specific frequencies, like a set of hearing aids, every level is just maxed out. And so all the really high pitches are really sharp, and then the low pitches, they kind of hurt. And so it is quite difficult. So that’s something that I’m looking into for sure, is to see if I can get hearing aid technology put into. Some racing earbuds so that they can be changed to my personal frequencies. Yeah, that would be a big help, I bet. Oh, for sure. Yeah. Well, actually, there was one time last year I was testing a car, and the crew chief, I thought he shouted, Fire. Like, fire, fire. Like the car was on fire. But he just shouted, Stop. And so I stopped it as quick as I could. I span around and jumped out of the car thinking that the car was on fire. It actually wasn’t. We all have stories like that where we miss hear something sound. Right. So that was pretty scary, but I managed to laugh about it afterwards. Absolutely. I was hoping you could talk a little bit about how wearing your hearing aids makes things easier for you. So you had sort of those seven years where you didn’t wear hearing aids and then came back to them. I mean, how did that change your life? I just felt 100% more connected to friendship groups and family groups, like seeing simple things like sitting at the dinner table or something like that, or sitting there watching TV. In those seven years when I wasn’t wearing hearing aids, I didn’t realize what I was missing out on, to be honest. But then I also did feel that at some points, I did feel disconnected, and I was kind of separated from friendship groups and stuff like that. So when I started wearing them again, my confidence levels just went through the roof, and I felt kind of normal again. It was a big boost in my confidence. Part of me wishes that I didn’t stop wearing my hearing aids for those seven years because I can only imagine how many more friends I would still have and how many more new people I would have met. Because in those seven years, I held myself back, I locked myself in my room. I didn’t really go out and socialize, so it was a big difference when I started wearing them again. Yeah, absolutely. I found the same thing with my hearing aids. It helps me feel more confident, and I can get to different situations, and I may not hear perfectly, but I know that I can rearrange the situation or I can create some type of situation where I’ll be able to communicate well and that yeah, for sure. And then even today, on days where I sometimes don’t actually feel like wearing my hearing aids, because sometimes it’s nice to let your ears breathe and stuff. But then on those days, I do find myself pulling myself. Back from groups of people that are talking and stuff because it’s kind of too much for me with all the different background noises and I can’t focus on one thing, so I actually find myself pulling myself back again and then wonder why I didn’t wear my hearing aids today. Exactly. So I really love your movement, unDEAFeated. I think it’s all about empowerment and beating back stigma. Talk a little bit about how you created it and what you’re trying to accomplish with that. Well, I came up with the name because I was trying to think of something that was relatable to my own story. And my own story was that I wasn’t letting hearing loss defeat me. And so that’s when I then came up with the name Undefeated and then changed changed the spelling to D-E-A-F. So that’s where that actually came from. And so it was all built around my own personal experiences with hearing loss. And so that’s where it came from. And I wanted to build something that gave me a platform to be able to promote the same motivation and inspiration to other kids and teenagers who feel like they can’t chase their dreams because they’re therefore they have hearing loss. And using my story as a hard of hearing race car drive to show them that, yes, you can still do it. You can still do anything you want. It might not be as easy, but it’s still possible. I love that. And it seems like you’re getting lots of traction with it, right. Even in the race car world, it seems like you’re everywhere talking about it. Yeah, for sure. It’s going really well. And honestly, hearing loss and racing kind of go hand in hand because racing is the loudest sport in ironic that you know, that that I’m a I’m a activist for hearing loss. Yeah, I’m I’m a race guard driver too. That’s how it works sometimes, right? But it’s going really well. And I’ve had parents who have kids that are getting their first set of hearing AIDS reach out to me because they’re worried. Their kids are worried about how they might their friends with wearing hearing aids and they’re worried about what they might look like. And so I’m having people come out to me asking for for advice and stuff like that and it’s. Great. Being able to impact people’s lives and spread awareness. That’s terrific. So you have a website and there’s a podcast as well. Are there other ways that people can interact with the brand? For sure, yeah. We’re on social media, so we’re on Facebook and Instagram. We also just launched a TikTok where I’m going to be as making some fun and funny videos to spread awareness about hearing loss. I think it’s always a good thing to try and put a light, funny spin on it sometimes. That’s going to be the goal with TikTok. So, yeah, we’re pretty much pretty much all over the place, so we have the YouTube channel as well, which all the all the podcasts will be on as well. They’re all filmed and they’re all transcribed and subtitled, so people can still watch them easily. That’s terrific. Yeah. And so when people ask you for advice, they contact you and say, what should I be doing? What type of advice do you have for young adults that have hearing loss? I tried to tell them that there’s so many other people out there like you, and it’s not this new thing like it used to be. Even ten years ago, or even 20 years ago, hearing wasn’t really talked about and it was still this new thing and people saw hearing aids and thought, oh, they look quite funny, but I feel like today it’s a lot more socially accepted and you see so many more people out there today wearing hearing aids. And so I tried to tell them that there’s so many other people out there just like you and they’re doing amazing things and there’s absolutely no reason that you can’t as well. You just have to have to put your mind to it. I just try and tell them just to go for it because there really is nothing to lose. What are you going to lose by chasing your dreams? I think one of the worst things that could happen is you achieve your dreams. I’ll just try and push that on them just to go for it, because I have so many other people have and you only have one life, so just go for it. I love that message. That is terrific. So your family must be so proud of you. How has your family sort of supported you in your hearing loss journey? They have for sure supported me. They love what I’m doing. But growing up, it wasn’t it really wasn’t anything that they actually realized. I’m. Not entirely sure how or why. It was something that was kind of found out later on. And as soon as they noticed that I was kind of not hearing people properly and pulling myself away from friendship groups and family and stuff it’s straight away, they took me in, got me a hearing test, and we got set up with my first set of hearing aids. So, yeah, they have been a great support, for sure. That’s wonderful. I always say that you have hearing loss. Your family has it too, because communication is so critical in any kind of relationship, families, friendships, and so when that communication is harder, relationships are harder. So it’s wonderful to have that support, for sure. And they also realized that racing really was my way of kind of dealing with it, too. So they really helped me with my racing, too. That’s true. Yeah. That’s very awesome. Well, any final thoughts that you would like to share with the audience? I just want to say that if you have a dream in mind or a goal in mind and you want to chase it, but you just feel like hearing loss is kind of that last barrier that’s pulling you back just to go for it, because there really is nothing to lose by chasing your dreams. There really is so many people out there in the hearing loss, in the heart of hearing and deaf community that are doing incredible things, and there’s no reason why you can’t do the same. So don’t worry about what this one random person is saying about your hearing loss or like me with my teacher. Don’t worry about them because it’s not their life, it’s yours. So just go for it. I love that. That is fabulous. So I thank you very much, Keenan, for being here on the podcast and sharing very much experiences and your message. And I wish you lots of continued success in your journey. unDEAFeated as well. And if people want to learn about Undefeated, they can go to undeafeated.org. And it’s D-E-A-F yes. Absolutely. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. It’s been great.