Shelley Beattie

Shelley Ann Beattie was born in Orange County, California, where she at the age of three suffered from severe hearing loss due to overdose of aspirins; the overdose caused her to lose all her ability to hear in one ear and reduced her ability to hear by thirty percent in the other. This event changed her life at an early age. She was raised in California until age 11, when she moved to Oregon. While living in Oregon and going to school experienced a number of problems; all due to her hearing deficiency. Because of her hearing problems Shelley had trouble socializing at school since she could not communicate with other classmates who thought she was stupid according to her since she could only understand them only if they were facing her. Because of this Beattie became a loner and soon she began to use sports to deal with her frustrations and lack of social life. She would later learn sign language as well as getting several operations and speech therapy to help her deal with her hearin