Conner Boss, 18, is the first legally blind contestant to compete for Miss Florida USA.
She was diagnosed with Stargardt disease, a hereditary eye disease that caused her vision to get progressively worse, about 10 years ago.”It affects my retina and my
central vision, so my peripheral vision is intact,” said Boss. “When I’m looking at people, I try and look around. People take me as being rude but it’s hard for me to focus straight forward.” In rehearsal, Boss pays very close attention to where she needs to be on stage as to memorize how to get there. “She’ll actually say ‘four steps here, step down four steps, step down,’ ” explained Miss Florida USA Executive Producer Grant Gravitt. “She’ll memorize it.”
Humor is also an important outlet for Boss when dealing with her disease. “I find a lot of humor in it, the stupid stuff that I do, like running into things, tripping all the time over things that I cannot see,” she said. Although Boss is good at laughing off her missteps, she works very hard to avoid them, especially when she is on stage.”I think she’s different than any other girl but not because of her blindness,” said Gravitt. “I just think that she’s an awesome young lady that is really coming into the prime of her own.”Boss, who has as good a chance as the other 73 contestants at becoming Miss Florida USA 2013, says the older she gets the less importance she places on winning the crown. “I’ve come to learn that it’s not even about winning the pageants,” she said. “I’m so glad that my story can be shared and that at least if I can inspire one person, I feel like I’ve won already.”
