By Natalie St. Denis
Self-advocacy is hard. Demonstrating it publicly is even harder.
Take it from Emily Davenport, who’s working toward both. Originally from Texas, she works at a talent agency in Dallas, assisting individuals in the talent industry, as well as influencers.
Davenport took to TikTok to share the start of her new journey to change her life. The genuine and vulnerable video, posted in February 2024, captioned “This is me trying…to change my life. Follow along!”, details an experience Davenport had at an eye exam that changed her outlook on how she wanted to live her life.
Davenport went in to a scheduled eye appointment made with the insurance from her employer. She was optimistic heading in to the appointment. She was eligible to get new frames, so the salesperson browsed the showroom with her, picking out styles they thought she looked good in, complimenting her and doing the whole salesperson special. But Davenport then asked to browse on her own because the salesperson seemed to be avoiding the more “affordable” wall of spectacles.
Her favorite pair ended up being one of the seemingly cheaper options. She was thrilled. But her optimism was squashed once they totaled the exam, lenses and other fees. Feeling defeated, Davenport retreated and said that she would just get contact lenses and shop for glasses online at home like she had in the past because even with her insurance, she was still expected to pay $355 out of pocket in-store that day.
So, home she went, planning to browse glasses online. But she also had some work to tend to. Davenport opened her inbox and to her surprise, saw she coincidentally received an email from one of the glasses companies she was looking at. The company wanted to send one of the influencers she assists their entire new collection of glasses; all they needed was the influencer’s prescription. The influencer responded to Davenport saying they don’t have a glasses or contact lens prescription. So she let the company know, and despite this, they say they are going to send the influencer the whole collection anyways, just with non-prescription lenses. In addition to the collection, they said they would gift the influencer $200 to spend at their store – which just sells glasses.
The situation struck something in her and she knew she needed to make a change. Along with being upset with the idea that medical necessities shouldn’t be a luxury, she also recognized that for a while she has played the helper role in other people’s lives, while putting her own needs on the backburner.
“It definitely was the catalyst for a lot of my feelings,” Davenport said.
The decision to post her experience and claim to change her own life on social media came from her own experience of scrolling through various platforms, feeling herself comparing her life to others’. Davenport wanted to give a peek behind the curtain of the realities of life.
“You see these people every day who just record themselves online and they make their lives look really, really beautiful, and to an extent it is. But that doesn’t mean that your life doesn’t have the same amount of value, and even if they do get free merch or free items, it doesn’t mean that you’re also not deserving of that,” Davenport said.
Following her TikTok video, she started to hear from glasses companies, like the popular brand Warby Parker. Davenport had already bought new glasses from a cheaper company online, which was a part of the reason she declined their offer to gift her two pairs of glasses. While she was grateful, she felt they were kind of missing the point because she didn’t need two pairs of glasses. But they came up with a compromise: she wanted them to gift the second pair to someone else.
“That’s kind of what I’m hoping comes out of this, is changing my life by changing other people’s lives at the same time.”
Another coincidence that Davenport took as a sign to make a change in her life was the fact that that week she had read a book titled “The Midnight Library.” The book details the journey of a woman who gets to see how her life would have been different for each different decision she could have made.
Davenport says that the book was “a right read at the right time.” But she has always been drawn to books, alongwith other forms of media, and their ability to remind her to romanticize life, even on its more mundane days.
“With books, I think they give a sense of release, but it keeps you grounded enough to make comparisons to your life,” Davenport said. “Even [in] fantasy books, I’ll find something, attach to a character that I see myself in. I just think it’s really powerful to have stories that you can relate to.”
When it came to sharing her story online, many people found themselves relating to her story. Davenport was surprised by the amount of positive feedback she received from viewers, as she had been afraid to share her opinions or experiences on social media because of the backlash that can come from it. The video, which has over 680,000 views on TikTok, is filled with comments from individuals saying they struggle to advocate for themselves too and are excited to follow her journey.
Davenport hopes people feel inspired by her journey and experiences she shares.
“I hope that people have more faith in themselves and what they can put out into the world. I hope that they take also [the idea of] ‘help yourself but also help others’ out of it.”
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