The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After dealing with dyslexia, woman reads to sick kids
Idea for overcoming fear blossoms into team charity effort.
For most of her life, Rachel Oehlert has struggled with dyslexia, often becoming confused when looking at words on a page or seeing letters as backward or upside down.
When her nervousness about reading aloud in grade school continued into adulthood, Oehlert, 24, of Thornton, Colorado, thought she needed something radical to jolt her out of her fear.
In 2016, she came up with an idea. She bought a princess costume with some money she had been given for her birthday, then arranged to visit a children’s hospital bedecked as Belle from “Beauty and the Beast.” After strolling into her first hospital room, she opened a book and started to read to the children.
Her voice was strong and confident, and the children were enthralled. She did not know who loved it more, her or them.
Three years later, not only is Oehlert more self-assured about reading, but she also has gotten 15 others to volunteer with her as princesses and superheroes and read to sick children. Several times a month, they visit places such as Children’s Hospital Colorado and Brent’s Place, a longterm home away from home for families of children receiving treatment for life-threatening illnesses, in Aurora, Colorado.
She turned the program into a charity and gave it the name Truly Make Believe.
Volunteers take along storybooks to read based on their characters.
“Doing this has made me a more compassionate human,” she said. What started as a simple idea to help me overcome a fear has become a big part of who I am.”
While there are plenty of companies that hire out princesses and superheroes for birthday parties and special events — some charging between $150 and $400 an hour — Truly Make Believe visits are done at no cost, said Oehlert, who works as a dog groomer when she is not dressing up as Belle or other characters.
She and the other volunteers use their own money to buy costumes, wigs and makeup to bring their characters to life.
“Walking into a room knowing that you’re going to make someone happy is the most rewarding feeling I’ve ever experienced,” said Oehlert, whose volunteers portray more than 20 characters, including Snow White, Spider-Man, Rapunzel and Darth Vader.
Oehlert was diagnosed with dyslexia and dysgraphia in 2005 when she was 10 after years of struggling in school.
“It was difficult,” she said, “but now I see it as a learning difference, not a disability. People with different brains learn in different ways. I see the world differently — and I think the world needs that.”