'Confidence is not a light switch you just turn on'

It took years for Strictly and Love Island star Tasha Ghouri to show off her cochlear implant with pride - now she hopes to inspire others to embrace their differences too

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When Tasha Ghouri was growing up, struggling with her self-confidence as the only deaf child in her school, she could never have imagined that one day she would be at Windsor Castle, rubbing shoulders with the biggest names in politics, celebrity and royalty.

"I realised my life had changed when I met the King," says Tasha, 26, about attending the coronation event in 2023. "Getting invited to meet the King, I remember thinking 'Am I part of the Royal Family now?'

"[In] moments like that I thought, 'My life is completely different now. I am on the right path and I need to keep utilising my voice as much as I can'."

It's a promise she has managed to keep, first with Hits Different, her 2024 novel about a girl who, like Tasha, wears a cochlear implant and follows her dreams of dancing. Then in autumn last year, she performed a showstopping turn on Strictly, becoming a runner-up, and this April saw her release Your Superpower, a memoir and call to arms for people to embrace their differences.

Speaking to TV presenter-turned-coach Katy Hill at Fearne Cotton's Happy Place Festival, Tasha said: "I called my book Your Superpower as my dad told me to embrace what I have as it makes me unique in a special way.

"The book is good for people who struggle with self-confidence or have encountered bullying at school. My parents talk about how they got through it all and it empowers you."

IMPLANT

Tasha's own journey began at the age of five when she had her cochlear implant fitted. This is a small electronic hearing device that turns sound into electrical signals, which are then sent to the hearing nerve and the brain, which registers them as sound.

"It gives you hearing and amplifies it," she says. "It is like a robotic ear, that is the best way to explain it. It is not something that cures your hearing.

"Back in the day I was so scared to show it off but I am proud to have my cochlear implant now.