FIRST COLOUR BLIND STAR!
KIRSTI ISN’T LETTING HER CONDITION HOLD HER BACK
This year’s LEGO Masters stars share a passion for building elaborate masterpieces. But for 44-year-old foster mum Kirsti, there’s one thing that sets her apart from the competition – she’s colour blind!
Growing up, Kirsti’s condition was constantly being brushed aside.
“Things kept happening that made it clear to me that I wasn’t seeing colours the same way as others,” she shares. “At first I thought I was being pranked, but then I realised what it must be.
“When I started explaining I was colour blind, I had all these people scoff and say, ‘Girls can’t be colour blind.’”
Colour blindness for red and green affects one in 100
women. For men, it’s eight in 100. It wasn’t until Kirsti was an adult that she underwent tests and received an official diagnosis.
“It was so helpful to finally feel allowed to be colour blind, because that’s what the tests all showed,” tells Kirsti.
When it comes to LEGO, being colour blind hasn’t impacted Kirsti – until now. Thankfully, she has her LEGO Masters partner Daniel to turn to if something stumps her.
“I can differentiate brick colours by using a few tricks,” Kirsti explains. “I use colour theory to help.
“Some colours make other colours more themselves. I love the teal separator (even though teal itself is desperately confusing to me … is it green, is it blue?), because I can use it as a point of reference. I can hold bricks beside it to see if they are lighter or darker. I then pool the tones into different puddles of bricks and just remember which is which.
“When it’s really stumping me, I just ask Daniel.”
Kirsti’s condition has also created day-to-day challenges, especially around what to wear of a morning.
“I have had some pretty scathing judgements about my clothing choices, so
I ended up choosing a few core colours that I feel safe with and simply wearing those. Or all black … All black feels very safe.”
As for her job as a school support worker, Kirsti adds: “My biggest worry is a kindergartener will laugh at me when
I hand them the wrong pencil. But the joy they have at being the expert is worth it.”