Deaf Utopia
by Nyle DiMarco

From the publisher

A heartfelt and inspiring memoir and Deaf culture anthem by Nyle DiMarco, actor, producer, two-time reality show winner, and cultural icon of the international Deaf community.

Before becoming the actor, producer, advocate, and model that people know today, Nyle DiMarco was half of a pair of Deaf twins born to a multi-generational Deaf family in Queens, New York. At the hospital one day after he was born, Nyle “failed” his first test—a hearing test—to the joy and excitement of his parents.

In this moving and engrossing memoir, Nyle shares stories, both heartbreaking and humorous, of what it means to navigate a world built for hearing people. From growing up in a rough-and-tumble childhood in Queens with his big and loving Italian-American family to where he is now, Nyle has always been driven to explore beyond the boundaries given him.

A college math major and athlete at Gallaudet—the famed university for the Deaf in Washington, DC—Nyle was drawn as a young man to acting, and dove headfirst into the reality show competitions America’s Next Top Model and Dancing with the Stars—ultimately winning both competitions.

Deaf Utopia is more than a memoir, it is a cultural anthem—a proud and defiant song of Deaf culture and a love letter to American Sign Language, Nyle’s primary language. Through his stories and those of his Deaf brothers, parents, and grandparents, Nyle opens many windows into the Deaf experience.

Deaf Utopia is intimate, suspenseful, hilarious, eye-opening, and smart—both a memoir and a celebration of what makes Deaf culture unique and beautiful.

My Review

I am ashamed to admit that although I watched Nyle’s season of ANTM, I had not truly taken the time to learn more about Deaf culture until I picked up this memoir. And that’s on me. It should not have taken me this long.

I loved learning more about Deaf schools, the fight the community has had to wage against audist learning models, and their winning protests for teachers and leaders that actually come from the community they are positioned to guide into the future. His anecdotes of teenage rowdiness are perfect in their universality but also perfect in their specificity – no hearing kid with hearing parents would think to simply block the light under their mom’s bedroom door and then proceed to throw a full-on party in the kitchen! What an amazing story!

The innovation and problem-solving when faced with a world not built for Deaf people that’s on display throughout this book is inspiring, but it also shouldn’t have to be that way. That, juxtaposed with the moments of isolation and disconnection due to communication barriers and lack of accommodation is a challenge to the world to consider accessibility and empathy in our day to day lives. And I, for one, am inspired to rise up and meet that challenge.