“The Bachelor”'s Abigail Heringer Tells Her Story of 'Hearing Loss and Hope' in New Memoir “The Deaf Girl” (Exclusive)
From 'outsider' to trailblazer, the first Deaf contestant on 'The Bachelor' tells her life story in the book, out Sept. 10
Spencer Click and Josh Erb; Sourcebooks
Abigail Heringer and her new memoir, 'The Deaf Girl'From facing childhood bullies to making history on The Bachelor, former contestant Abigail Heringer is ready to tell her story.
The 29-year-old reality star and deaf advocate, who became the first woman in Bachelor Nation history to use a cochlear implant, is recounting her life story in the pages of her new memoir, The Deaf Girl: A Memoir of Hearing Loss, Hope, and Fighting Against the Odds, PEOPLE can exclusively reveal.
According to the book's official description, The Deaf Girl will recount Heringer’s experiences of “hearing loss and hope” — experiences she began sharing during season 25 of The Bachelor as the series’ first Deaf contestant.
Related: The Bachelor's Abigail Heringer Calls Matt James' Reaction to Her Hearing Loss a 'Special Moment'
Retelling the moment she first made history on the dating show, the official Deaf Girl description reads: “Stepping out of the limousine, she approached her bachelor with a playful declaration: she would be staring at [Bachelor Matt James’] lips all night for two compelling reasons―her profound deafness since birth and because he had some nice lips!”
“I was so viscerally aware that I wasn’t just meeting Matt; I was meeting the entire world,” Heringer writes in her memoir. “I wasn’t just speaking to him but speaking to everyone about my disability and experience with cochlear implants.”
The memoir, which hits shelves in September, will also dive into Heringer’s life before she appeared on The Bachelor (and later, Bachelor in Paradise, where she met her now-fiancé, Noah Erb), a time when she was far less confident.
“Growing up deaf and introverted, she dreaded being the center of attention, fearing her disability would burden those around her,” the description reads. “Among her hearing peers, she felt like an outsider, simply labeled as ‘the deaf girl.’ And after receiving a cochlear implant at the age of two, she subsequently struggled to find her place in the Deaf community too. Caught in between two worlds and grappling to define her identity as a deaf woman, Abigail felt like she belonged in neither.”
Craig Sjodin via Getty
Abigail Heringer and Matt James on 'The Bachelor'Echoing this in the book’s pages, the reality star recalled feeling like she was leading a double life.
“I’d spent most of my life trying to blend in with the able-bodied crowd around me, never wanting to stand out as the ‘deaf girl,'" she writes. "For so many years, I was two people—the Abigail who was deaf and the Abigail who was just me.”
In The Deaf Girl — whose title is an effort to “reclaim” the insult she once grappled with — Heringer will also delve into her mother's experience raising two children with disabilities (Heringer’s older sister, Rachel, is also deaf).
In the Bachelor alum’s own words, it will show how her mom navigated “all the emotions that come when you find out that your child has a disability: grief, anger ... all the raw emotions.”
Sourcebooks
'The Deaf Girl' by Abigiail Heringer, the first Deaf contestant on 'The Bachelor'Through both her highest highs to her lowest lows, The Deaf Girl is also meant to inspire.
As Heringer puts it, “Through these pages, I hope to empower others to embrace their truth, to stand tall in the face of adversity, and to live boldly and unapologetically in who they are. Just as I have learned to do.”
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The Deaf Girl hits bookstores on Sept. 10, and is now available for preorder, wherever books are sold.
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