A young Chinese woman who lost an eye in a serious car accident dedicated her life to creating prosthetic eyes that glow different colors.

In 2013, Xia Tong lost one of her eyes in a car accident. She was only 18 at the time, and she had it replaced with a prosthetic eye. Instead of losing confidence in herself and shying away from people because of her appearance, the young woman decided to turn her situation to make herself stand out. After studying to become a prosthetic eye technician (ocularist), Xia Tong started making all sorts of unique prosthetics for herself, which she showed off on social media, slowly building up a loyal following.

Xia Tong is perfectly capable of making classic prosthetic eyes that are almost indistinguishable from real ones, but she is best known for her “bionic eyes” that light up different colors and even flash at the press of a button. Short videos of her trying out some of these unusual prostheses have been going viral in China and she recently got the attention of mainstream media as well.

The 28-year-old woman told Beijing News that she got into making prosthetic eyes as a way of helping people like her deal with confidence issues. She had met a lot of people who had become isolated or had low self-confidence after losing an eye, and that inspired her to become an ocularist and create better prosthetics.

Some people want realistic prostheses, but some, like Xia Tong herself, use their disability to make themselves really unique by incorporating small LEDs in their prosthetics. This allows them to look like real-life androids or Terminator robots, and that’s admittedly pretty cool.

 

Xia Tong’s story and her commitment to making better prosthetic eyes recently went viral in China, with most people praising her boldness and her power to turn a traumatizing, life-changing event in her life into something positive.