OPTICAL PRISM | ON THE COVER
Sarah Michelle Gellar is probably best known for her on-screen portrayal of beloved demon-battling Buffy the Vampire Slayer .
But what many people might not know is that off-screen , the award-winning actress , producer and entrepreneur has been dealing with a struggle of her own : myopia .
The vision condition , commonly referred to as nearsightedness , also impacts her husband and , as she discoverewd during the global COVID-19 pandemic , her eightyear-old son .
To help fight the growing problem , which experts believe will impact half of the world ’ s population by 2050 , Gellar has teamed up with CooperVision to raise awareness about its Brilliant Futures Myopia Management Program , which became available in Canada in November .
Brilliant Futures is built around Cooper- Vision ’ s Health Canada-approved MiSight 1 day , the world ’ s first one-day soft contact lens that ’ s clinically proven to substantially slow the progression of myopia in age-appropriate children .
As Brilliant Futures ’ spokesperson , Gellar is featured in a new multi-channel direct-to-consumer advertising campaign aimed at highlighting the importance of annual comprehensive eye exams in monitoring the progression of myopia in children as well as promoting CooperVision ’ s MiSight 1 day . It is believed to be possibly the world ’ s largest-ever consumer myopia management awareness initiative .
Recently , Optical Prism spoke with Gellar about her history with myopia , how the condition affects her family , CooperVision ’ s Brilliant Futures and her collaboration with the company .
Q . Can you tell us about your personal experience with myopia ?
A . I was an adult when I realized that I was struggling a little bit with my eyesight . I was on the set of Buffy and we had a full-time eye doctor and lens tech . He noticed when I was looking at my script in my chair and he asked me when was the last time I had my eyes checked . And I realized probably not in a very long time . And so he was able to check my eye sight right there on set and realized that I needed glasses .
Q . What challenges have you experienced due to your myopia ?
A . There are always challenges in whatever job it is you do . For me , it was cue cards . When you ’ re hosting Saturday Night Live , how do you make sure you can read everything properly when they ’ re changing it at the last second and it ’ s not about memorization ? And I worked very long hours and my eyes would continually get tired while reading scripts so often .
Q . At what point did you realize that your son was also myopic ?
A . It ’ s been an interesting learning curve for us through quarantine . Initially , when our kids went to distance learning , we noticed that our son was blinking a lot . He was really struggling to focus and his eyes were heavy . His teacher noticed too and she asked me what I thought about it and my initial reaction was screen fatigue since our kids didn ’ t have a lot of access to devices prior to this time and now all of a sudden , for eight hours a day , they ’ re taking in all this information . But , as it progressed , I noticed it wasn ’ t getting any better , which normally with screen fatigue your eyes would acclimate and get used to the new struggle . And so , at that point , we decided that we
OPTICAL PRISM | January 2021 21