A Girl Behind Dark Glasses

Jessica Taylor-Bearman shares her inner-most thoughts and real-time emotions - adapted from her diary growing up as a teenager in South- East England - detailing the terrifying discovery that, aged 15, instead of partying, studying and socialising, she would rapidly become bed- ridden, ultimately unable to move, speak, eat... Despite the odds, Jessica never gave up. Her dream was to become an author, to be able to marry, leave the hospital, and help others through the creation of her own charity. In July 2018, her first book, A Girl Behind Dark Glasses, will be published by Hashtag Press. Jessica has been a Pride of Britain nominee, her charity Share A Star touches lives every day, and she is the star of the Oscar-shortlisted, Sundance award-winning film UNREST by Jennifer Brea, a journalist and filmmaker from New York, who aims to raise awareness about Myalgic Encephalomyletis (M.E.).

Jessica Taylor-Bearman was born in March 1991, at Maidstone Hospital in England. She grew up in Rochester and Canterbury, Kent, where she attended Rochester Grammar School for Girls. At the age of 15, she became acutely unwell with an illness called M.E. She was continuously hospitalised from 2006 to 2010, suffering with the most severe form of the condition. This included her being bedridden, unable to move, speak, eat and more. She began to write in her mind, and when finally able to speak again, she began to write through her audio diary ’Bug’. In 2009,