Who is Daisy Kent? 'The Bachelor' Season 28 contestant's experience with hearing loss turned her into an influencer
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA: Daisy Kathryn Rae Kent might be a new face to 'The Bachelor' but she is a well-known figure on social media. Daisy went viral in 2023 for sharing her hearing loss story to the world.
Born on September 8, 1998, Daisy hails from San Diego, California. However, her hometown is in Minnesota. Daisy has graduated in Communications, digital, and social media from San Diego State University.
She started her job as a part-time content creator. Later, she tried her luck in accounts and is now an account executive by profession. Daisy has also founded her own non-profit organization named Hear Your Heart to help "support children who have autoimmune disorders or hearing loss."
As of now, Daisy works as a full-time account executive at Jungo, a mortgage CRM company.
Daisy has suffered from profound hearing loss and hearing aids did not work out for her. She, therefore, ended up getting a cochlear implant. She documented her entire experience on TikTok and became an influencer for all who suffer from such issues.
Her TikTok account has more than 40K followers and her Instagram profile has 16.6K followers. Daisy is already a known personality.
How did 'The Bachelor' Season 28 contestant Daisy Kent lose her hearing?
Daisy was just 15 when she began losing her sense of hearing. It began when her father found it difficult to wake her up one day.
She recounted the experience in an interview with CBS8, "He was shaking me, and I was like, 'This is weird,'" she recalled. "I looked at him, I couldn't hear him, then sat up and realized something was wrong with my left ear."
"It started as a lot of high-pitched ringing and then just progressively got worse, and I couldn't understand speech very well," she added. This led her to begin "isolating" herself.
Daisy, who was once a social butterfly, suddenly started feeling alone and couldn't express her disappointment. She was just 17 when she was diagnosed with Meniere's disease, a disorder in the inner ear.
At the age of 21, it was confirmed that Daisy had Lyme disease, which had likely been the cause of Meniere's disease. Hearing aids also did not work for her as her speech recognition continued to be distorted.
Daisy started researching about cochlear implants. She was supported by her family and got the implant surgery in 2023 and briefly documented her experience.
Despite joining support groups while researching about the implants, she had not seen anyone go through the process. So she decided to document it, mainly to reflect on her journey.
'The Bachelor' Season 28 contestant Daisy Kent has also written a book
Daisy always wanted to write a children's book. After getting her implant surgery she channeled her emotions into a book.
She wrote a book titled 'Daisy Doo, All the Sounds She Knew'. She explained in detail in the book about how it feels "to love sounds and have them taken away and be so scared, and then all of them come back to you."
What kind of partner does 'The Bachelor' Season 28 contestant Daisy Kent want?
Daisy comes from a big, loving family. Her parents have been married for 30 years. She is looking for the same kind of long-term love from her partner.
She wants a man who will "truly put her first." She wants to date a man who is "loyal, adventurous and family-oriented, and will be there for her no matter what." Daisy is hopeful that she'll find all the qualities of the man of her dreams in Joey Graziadei.
One of Daisy's hidden hobbies is that she "enjoys singing in her car at the top of her lungs."
'The Bachelor' Season 28 will premiere on Monday, January 22, 2024, at 8 pm ET on ABC.