Well when did that happen? When did my arms become so short that I could no longer read the small print?  When did I realise that no amount of frowning and facial contortions would allow me to see the ingredients in my anti-ageing creams? Little wonder I need said face creams. Even with the “big light” on, I was struggling to see fine detail, especially coloured print on a coloured background. The time had come to get my first pair of reading glasses.

Why We Need Reading Glasses

Of course as an optometrist, I knew it was inevitable. It’s called presbyopia and one typically becomes aware of it at around my age. (I’m 44 years old and I know many of you will identify).

To read or to see detail, the lens inside of the eye must change focus, just like a camera. It becomes more powerful by getting shorter and fatter. As we get older, the muscles that enable this change don’t work quite so well. As a consequence, the lens can’t refocus as effectively, so we can no longer see things as close as we used to. This is absolutely normal and something that will continue to change until we reach our mid-sixties to seventies.

My Collaboration With Stepper Eyewear

Just before Christmas, I met with Liz Shepherd, the Business Development Manager of a company called STEPPER. I’ll tell you a little more about STEPPER shortly, but first I’d like to tell you about Liz. We met in 1996 when I was straight out of university, doing my pre-registration year. Liz was an optical assistant in the practice and just a year or two older than me. There began a friendship which has spanned two decades. We’ve both had changes in direction but our career paths have co-incided again.

STEPPER is a family-run spectacle frame company which has been manufacturing eyewear since 1970. They were looking for bloggers or writers from within the optical field to contribute to their website,  Liz put my name forward. I was thrilled to be chosen as one of a small team of international brand ambassadors. I’ll write six features for their blog throughout the year and they will supply spectacles for me to use and review; this is a paid partnershp with STEPPER.

The timing could not have been better!  After a lovely lengthy lunch we spent a lot of time trying-on frames.

After a lot of deliberation, I decided upon this one which Liz arranged to have glazed with my prescription lenses.

My First Reading Glasses

The frame is a soft rectangle  made from titanium, so it’s very lightweight. ( It’s the SI-30113 from Stepper’s SI range). I love the tortoiseshell finish.

It works with every outfit style and colour but is available in other colourways too. It’s incredibly comfortable (because titanium is so lightweight), and it fits beautifully.

The detail on the sides of the frame adds interest, but doesn’t take away from the clean, simple lines.

I love my reading glasses. I can’t tell you what a difference they’ve made to both clarity and visual comfort when I read or use my phone. It’s funny, getting the glasses has encouraged me to read, knowing that it’s so much easier than it was. To read more is one of my New Year Resolutions, so I’m doubly pleased.

As I said earlier, this is a paid partnership with STEPPER. My opinions are 100% honest and the content is all my own. As always, it’s a pleasure to combine my professional clinical background with my blogging and writing. The frames are available from selected opticians (please see the STEPPER website).

If you like my cream pom pom jumper, it’s new this season from Next and the rather fabulous hoop earrings were gifted by Kendra Scott. And in the first few photographs, you can just see that I’m wearing my red velvet pleated skirt with a fluted sleeve top.