HERMON + HERODA BERHANE

When twin sisters Hermon and Heroda Berhane lost their hearing at seven years old, their parents packed them and their younger brother, who is also deaf, up and moved from Eritrea to America for medical testing. For one year their mother worked with them on their speech before the family relocated again, this time to the UK where they could have a better education. It was in boarding school that they learned British Sign Language and found community. There’s still no explanation for how the twins lost their hearing, but one thing is for sure—the trendy fashion bloggers never missed a beat. "We believe that us being deaf separates us from the rest of the bloggers out there and that our disability actually enhanced our popularity within media. We never allow being deaf to limit our ambition and disability doesn’t mean inability. We had to do something about it and make our voice heard!" they told Blavity.

The twins make sure their voice as a brand, and their voices as individuals are heard. While their blog portrays one cohesive lifestyle, their personalities diverge within it. Both women also find time to pursue interests beyond fashion. For Hermon it is acting, for Heroda, modeling. Being HER by Hermon and Heroda encompasses affordable Eritrean fashion, travel and storytelling, as the creative sisters take their audience along on their adventures. In addition to sharing their culture through style and stories of triumph, they want to inspire the deaf community at-large and dispel the misconception that they are incapable. "There is much worry about disabilities generally and not enough focus on...talent [and] skills,” they expounded. “This mindset people carry is outdated, especially in the world we live in today where being different is much more accepted and tolerated. We believe our fashion blog could help challenge our attitudes and make people more open to disabilities... we shouldn’t be invisible to the fashion world just because we are deaf. We are all equal.”