Growing up as a deaf child, I was extremely clueless about what was happening around me. I was put in a private school with no interpreter, no CART, or any kind of assistive device to help me understand except my hearing aids. I grew up relying on my aids and lip-reading, thinking that this was the norm for deaf kids all over America. When I got into high school, it was a bit harder. I had bigger classes, and longer lectures, and it started to become overwhelming to me to the point where I simply just gave up and taught myself the subjects at home. The change in my perspective occurred when I was lucky enough to be selected to represent Florida at the Jr. National Association of the Deaf Conference. Here, for the first time in my life, I met other deaf kids who were my age!! At home I only had myself. While my mom and grandparents are deaf, it wasn’t the same as having someone my age to be a friend. It was a culture shock for me. Here I learned more in-depth about my legal rights, and my eyes opened to how I’ve been wronged in my academic career. I should not have been denied access to an interpreter, or any other kind of listening aid that would have benefited me in my classes. To this day I deeply thank Jr. NAD for opening my eyes. However, with that in mind, I realized that I’m probably not the only deaf child that went through this with no access to resources. Deaf rights need to be advocated more to the youth because they are our future. They are the people that will take our place, and they need to know their rights to accommodations and resources not only in school but in everyday life! Especially now with COVID, it is much harder to communicate with masks. There have been times when I was denied service because the workers did not want to communicate through the notes app on our phones or pen and paper. There are so many more stories of Deaf people being denied access across America. The constant audism and isolation have taken a toll on each of our mental health as a whole. However, it is still a taboo topic since there are not many accessible and affordable therapists/psychologists. As of now, I am lucky enough to be a student at Gallaudet University, an immersive, 100% deaf school. My goal here is to be able to learn more about my culture while working forwards on my Social Work degree. From there, I will work as a Clinical Social worker with deaf youth to advocate for mental health and different resources in our community, since it is still a taboo topic. Additionally, my ultimate goal is to work with different deaf organizations such as Jr. NAD, Florida Association of the Deaf, Convo, and much more to advocate for the rights our deaf youth deserve to know!