How old were you when you started wearing glasses and/or contacts?

5 years old. I’m short/near-sighted.

Glasses, at the beginning of fourth grade. I was 7.5

Contacts, senior year in HS. I was 17.5.

About 11. Then I broke them and my grandma (I lived with her) refused to get me new ones. I was 16 before I got a new pair.

Fourth grade for blackboard, etc.; but not all the time until I ws 17.

14. am nearsighted. I only wore them at school at first, then when I needed them to drive I started to wear them all the time.

16

36 years old They greatly improved my playing softball could see the ball when I was at bat.

5 when I got glasses, 11 when I got contacts. I can’t see for shit.

Very young, five years old

I got my first pair of glasses in 2nd grade, and I was far-sighted. I didn’t like them much, though, and never wore them for reading like I was supposed to. I had a few other far-sighted pairs of glasses as I got older, the last set I got was around my freshman year of high school.

Then my eyes changed and went the other way. I was 20 or so and waiting in a long line.. squinting hard from a distance trying to read the menu while we waited. I guess my eyesight had been going steadily because I didn’t even realize it was impaired until my friend made a comment that day, regarding my squinting and her being able to read the menu. Now I’m near-sighted.

Contacts hurt my eyes really bad.. so I wear glasses.

Glasses is the 4th grade, then I started wearing contact in about the 9th grade.

I was 28 (I’m near/short sighted) just for reading but for a little over the past18 months (in my mid 40’s) my eyesight has changed soooooooo fast. I now literally can’t read the dials on the cooker, see the text on my laptop or read without my glasses, everything is fuzzy. It’s frightening how quickly it’s changing. The optician told me not to worry it’s just because I’m middle aged lol.

I was three or four when I started wearing glasses. I wore contacts when I was ten for special occasions, such as a dance recital or my elementary school graduation, but began wearing them full-time at the age of twelve.

Around 13.

I was in my 20s.

Strangely, I’ve now aged out of needing glasses and don’t wear them anymore.

I was ten – sixth grade. First realised I was nearsighted when I couldn’t read the menu board at Arby’s.

I tried switching to contacts when I was 19. Wore them for two years, until I scratched my cornea on a pair of extended-wears. That was painful.

I was 11 when I got glases, 16 when I got glasses and 36 when I went back to glasses.

I was in 7th grade when I started wearing glasses.

I was 7 when I started wearing glasses and I was 12 when I started contacts.

10 for glasses, 15 for contacts.

I was 8. Never looked back! Huzzah!

About 11 for glasses and 22 for contacts. I can’t stand contacts and glasses are annoying. So, I might be getting Lasik in the near future.

I was 9 for glasses 16 for contacts. A few years ago I got myself a pair of progessive glasses and a pair of single vision glasses that I love still. But now my eyes have improved due to aging changing the shape of my eyeball and I had to get different crappy ones. Oh well, got new contacts as well.

Around 15. I am a glasses girl, but occasionally I wear contacts.

20ish. Sophomore year of college. Just glasses, when reading and driving.

I was three. I feel more naked without my glasses than without clothes.

I was 23.

@crisw Pics or it never happened.

Depends how you look at life. I was 6 when I was first diagnosed as being short sighted and had the first pair of glasses made (they had mickey mouse on them) but I never actually wore them for more than about a week as they made me feel like the room was at an angle. Looking back there was obviously something badly wrong with the prescription but it was never sorted out.

I was 15 when I next went to the optician (diagnosis this time one eye short sighted and one long sighted – there’s a term for this but I can’t remember it). This time the glasses lasted a couple of months before I gave up on them.

At 20 the vision in both eyes had deteriorated quite badly however this time I had more freedom in choosing the frames (due to the fact I was paying for them) and ended up with a pair that not only were comfortable but also that I felt looked good. They were ridiculously expensive.

I’m 60 years old now and still don’t need glasses. (or contacts or lasik eye surgery)

I got my first pair of glasses when I was 8 and started wearing contacts when I was 12. I still wear both, but mostly my glasses.

My brother started wearing glasses when he was 5 and continues to wear them today. He’s never had contacts.

I was 24 when I first started wearing glasses.

On what grounds were you told that you should have been wearing them earlier (other than making more money for the optometrist that way)? Were you getting regular eye tests and refusing prescriptions?

I ask because my optometrist said something similar, though he had absolutely no background regarding my vision. And if he had known anything about my history, he’d have realized that I had tested 20/20 the year before. My eyes went downhill very quickly.

25 yrs old, my prescription is very slight and I’m in my 40’s now.

My parents were told I needed glasses when I was two years old. In pictures of me as a child, my glasses are too big for my face, since the optometrist didn’t have any that were my size. I got contacts when I was 14, but went back to glasses when I was 18. I had to wear reading glasses with the contacts, and it was too much of a pain to deal with.

Three. Cross eyed. And I stuttered. My poor mother sent me for “testing” in second grade cuz she thought I was slow. Turns out not but geez.

I have been wearing glasses since I was 5 years old.

@SavoirFaire…I didn’t have eye exams on a regular basis as a kid, that was because I have a photgraphic memory, and was able to bluff the eye tests at school every year. The problem with that was that I could not see the blackboard worth a damn. To add insult to injury, we were seated in alphabetical order, so I always wound up in the back of the classroom. I was a vain kid, and didn’t want to say to the teacher that I could not see the blackboard. So my parents never knew, that I was having problems, and my grades in school suffered because of it.

@SavoirFaire…The problem was that I was not getting regular eye exams as a kid, and my parents didn’t believe in taking us to the optometrist unless there was a suspected problem. My older brother has worn glasses since the age of six and my younger brother since he was 36. We are all nearsighted.

Glasses in 5th grade, contacts in I think 7th or 8th grade.

I am near sighted. I got glasses at 11, but I remember several years of school where I desperately needed them, and the school nurses said I was faking it to get attention.

I was 39. In the space of one month I went from being able to read the reduced-size OED without a magnifying glass to having 12-point double-spaced typescript jump around on the page. The eye doctor called it “losing my accommodation” and said I was about 4 years early for it. My occupation wore out my eyes’ elasticity ahead of schedule.

No contacts for me, ever.

Mid-twenties. What prompted me was that I was getting lost / missing turns when driving in my childhood town—because I couldn’t read the street signs.
What I remember noticing the most when I got my near-signtness and severe astigmatism corrected was that trees had individual leaves on them (again).

11.

I tried contacts, but they proved to be too much bother.

Like @Jeruba , I was pretty young for “short arm syndrome” at 38, and it took me awhile to get used to having glasses with me all the time. As I was selling books at the time, I needed to get with the program quickly. Now I have dozens of the drug store readers all over the place, and as much of a bore as it is, I’m grateful that they’re so easy to get.

about 13 but for years now “they” say I don’t need them. I don’t understand it. Regardless, I do wear prescription sunglasses.

About four years old. Since then I have worn contacts and glasses at different times. Recently I had surgery and now don’t have to wear my glasses all the time. It is very different after wearing them for so long.

Are you worried about wearing them for some reason?

@Mz_Lizzy…no, I am not worried at all about wearing them, I have been wearing glasses for 24 years, but should have been doing so for a lot longer than that. I was just curious…When I was at my last high school reunion, I have noticed that more of my classmates,myself included are wearing glasses now. I was just curious if it was partially an age thing, or hereditary, or both. I am wondering if my daughter is going to need glasses when she becomes school aged. Both my wife and I wear glasses now…

Thank you for explaining. My ex husband also wore glasses and as I have said, I have needed glasses since I was a young child. None of our children wear glasses yet though and I have three. Their sight is so far fine. I know this sounds ridiculous and I don’t really believe it is true, but he is shortsighted and I am longsighted. Perhaps we cancelled each other out genetically.

22 for contacts and 24 for glasses although I should of started wearing them in 8th or 9th grade.

I new I needed them in high school, but didn’t start wearing them until I was 22 and have been wearing them for over 30 years now.