TASHA GHOURI TALKS ABOUT HER ‘SUPERPOWER’ AS SHE GRACES THE COVER OF NOTEBOOK MAGAZINE

16.07.2024

Tasha Ghouri looked sensational as she appeared as the cover star of Notebook magazine.

The deaf model and campaigner used her platform to discuss her ‘superpower’ as well as normalising a deaf accent and inclusivity in mainstream media.

Opening up to the glossy magazine, she said: “I’d love to see more representation on TV as a whole,” she says in the chat. “We’re definitely taking a step in the right direction, but I think it’s still not quite there – it still feels like box-ticking.”

“I want to continue that momentum by questioning why we can’t have, say, two deaf people on a show, or more than one person in a wheelchair. It’s about making inclusivity not a surprise.”

During the interview, which Tasha did to mark Deaf Awareness Week in May, Tasha discussed her role in calling for British Sign Language to be taught in schools. From September 2025, students can take up the subject as a GCSE. She said:

“I hope that people will take this opportunity to learn sign language and to make deaf people feel more included in conversations. I wish that I had the option back at school, because I had to stop using BSL and I was forced into using speech around people.”

Tasha also spoke about her debut novel, Hits Different, which is on sale now, as well as sharing her deaf accent publicly for the first time.
She said of an Instagram video she made, "Seeing the response to the video was amazing, and the more the deaf accent gets talked about, the more people feel seen and heard.

“When I first came off Love Island, I wasn’t ready to show that side of me just yet. But I was on a trip recently and I was about to put my cochlear implant in to film something when I would naturally keep it out and I thought, ‘It’s time to stop doing that and embrace the real me.”