Name: The Story of My Life
Rating: 4.6 (36 reviews)
Author: Helen Keller

What’s in it for me? Learn about the early years of an influential American icon.

You’re probably familiar with the name of Helen Keller. She’s become a touchstone for triumph over adversity, and even featured in contemporary music such as “Helen Keller,” by DJ Khaled.

While you may know that Helen Keller was a woman who had a disability, you may not know the details of her story and what made her stick in the hearts and minds of so many people.

Living with disabilities is challenging, and you’ll come to understand that it’s even harder to deal with when you’re growing up.

As a young girl, Keller was already exhibiting remarkable strength of character in the face of adversity. In these blinks, we’ll go further into her life as a child and adolescent, which will no doubt inspire and motivate you to achieve what you want in your own life.

In these blinks, you’ll find out

the struggles involved in growing up deaf and blind;
how one teacher saved Keller’s life; and
Keller’s favorite book.

Since she was a baby, Helen Keller was both blind and deaf.

Born in 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama, Helen Keller would grow up to lead an incredible life that no one had thought possible.

She was just 19 months old when she was struck with a horrible fever.

Keller had started to walk and talk and showed signs of being a fast learner before the illness developed. But when she lost her sight and hearing due to her illness, she had to learn how to communicate by other means.

Basic signals and actions such as nodding her head for yes and shaking it for no allowed her to express herself to others. Fortunately, Keller’s mother helped ensure that her daughter understood what was being asked of her, and, at the age of five, Helen was already partaking in daily activities such as folding and putting away the laundry.

You can imagine, however, that growing up deaf and blind can lead to incredible frustration, and understandably, Keller wasn’t always the most well-behaved child. She would erupt into fits of rage when unable to express what she wanted. And when something didn’t go the way she desired, the consequences were sometimes disastrous.

One day she decided to throw an apron into the fire because it wasn’t drying quickly enough. She set herself on fire as a result, though thankfully her injuries weren’t too severe.

Keller also acted out in other ways, like when she locked her mother up in the pantry for three hours and refused to let anyone know the whereabouts of the key.

It was at this point that her parents realized she needed to be educated. Yet the difficulty of finding someone qualified in educating a young blind and deaf girl was considerable.

But as we will find out, the right teacher did come along – one who would change her life forever.

Miss Sullivan was the teacher who transformed Helen’s life.

After traveling to Washington to meet with the inventor Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, Helen and her parents were told to call the Perkins Institution in Boston, a school for the blind. Although Helen didn’t attend the school, she became a frequent visitor, and Mr. Anagnos, the director of the school, was tasked with the job of finding a teacher who would meet her needs.

That teacher was Anne Sullivan.

Times weren’t always easy, but Helen Keller’s life was full of joy and wonder.

Keller had many valuable first experiences and loving friendships during her childhood and adolescence, but there were also times of darkness.

At 12, she unintentionally plagiarised a book when writing her homework for the Perkins Institution and was reprimanded for it.

Keller’s dream of studying at college came true.

Keller went to college in 1900. Though her time there wasn’t without its struggles, the feeling of reward was everlasting.

First, she went to prep school at The Cambridge School for Young Ladies and, shockingly from a modern perspective, was given almost no special assistance, despite her disabilities. To get by in class, Keller put to use the method of learning taught to her by Miss Sullivan.

Kernaussagen in The Story of My Life

Über den Autor

Helen Keller (1880–1968) was an American author, speaker and political activist who was part of the women’s suffrage movement and spoke up for the working classes as a member of the Socialist Party. She devoted her life to helping others. She also helped found the American Civil Liberties Union.