06/08/2026
Some of our team had the privilege of attending the launch of Suzy Zail's new novel, A New Kind of Beautiful, last night.
It tells the story of Paige, a 16-year-old artist diagnosed with Stargardt disease, one of the inherited retinal diseases our community knows well. Suzy spent four years researching this book: interviewing eye specialists, training with a cane through Guide Dogs Victoria, and wearing goggles that simulate vision loss to try to understand what Paige's world would feel like. She also worked closely with people living with vision loss, including our own Jane Cherry, a former Retina Australia board director, who lives with retinitis pigmentosa.
Jane was one of the people Suzy consulted throughout the writing process, and wrote the book's afterword. On the night she spoke about what it meant to finally see her own experience reflected so faithfully in a story, real proof of how much care went into getting it right.
A diagnosis like Paige's can bring real grief, and we think it is important to say that out loud. It is not the end of a full life, but the beginning of a very different one. That is why Retina Australia exists—not only to fund the research working toward treatments and cures, but to be the voice for the people living with inherited retinal disease, to help them tell their stories, and to walk beside them and their families while that research continues.
If you know a young person newly navigating an IRD diagnosis, this book could be a gentle way to help them feel understood, and our team is always here if they, or you, need someone to talk to.
Congratulations to Suzy Zail and everyone at Walker Books on a beautiful story.
