No matter what your age, making new friends can be exciting, but it can also sometimes be a challenge, particularly if you don’t “speak” the same language as the person you’re interested in befriending. When Skye Vanderlinden, who’s currently an eighth grader at Coronado Middle School, first met Max Bryant, a younger student who attended the California School for the Deaf, she didn’t know how to communicate with him. With an amazing smile and bright, twinkling eyes, Skye didn’t let the fact that she didn’t know American Sign Language stand in her way; she made it her mission to learn how to sign.
About a year ago Max’s mother Rebecca began teaching Skye and a small group of her friends how to sign, and, much to her delight, recognized that Skye was able to easily learn American Sign Language, something which doesn’t necessarily come easily to most hearing people. Before long, Skye was not only able to sign so she could communicate with her new friend Max, she learned that she could “sing” in American Sign Language, opening up a new world of incredible opportunities and fun for her.
Rebecca Bryant offers nothing but praise when speaking about her son’s friend. “Skye is one of the most natural and fluid signers, who is not deaf, I have encountered. I have been involved with the Deaf community and Deaf family members my whole life, and she is a natural! Skye is amazingly expressive, which is a huge part of the art of communicating with American Sign Language, and not easily taught. That is partly why she is so talented at signing music. She gives a song a beautiful visual story in addition to the music that can be listened to. Skye and Max became fast friends, because she was so interested in communicating with him, and cared about what he had to say. The majority of deaf people are born into hearing families, which can be isolating, as most families don’t already know ASL. So for a hearing person, particularly a non-family member, to go to great lengths to become fluid in ASL makes that person pretty special to have as a friend. No doubt about it, Skye is one of Max’s favorite people!”
On the days that Skye was unable to get together with Max, she began studying American Sign Language online, exploring numerous websites that teach ASL. Even though the Navy transferred the Bryant family from Coronado to Annapolis, Maryland this past summer, Skye’s interest in learning to sign has not faltered, in fact, she’s taken it upon herself to continue learning American Sign Language by teaching herself, and, amazingly has even taught herself how to sign the lyrics to popular songs.
Using the popular app musical.ly, Skye has become quite the sensation with close to 50,000 fans! Typically with the app, people record themselves as they lip sync along to no more than fifteen seconds of a popular song. Skye, however, has taken the app to a whole new level! In addition to lip syncing along, Skye signs (not sings) the lyrics. By signing the lyrics, she’s not only making this app one which deaf or hearing impaired people can enjoy, but she’s also exposing people of all ages to American Sign Language.
Whether the song Skye signs along with is a holiday song such as Last Christmas by Ariana Grande or a remix of Maroon Five’s Don’t Wanna Know, Skye has learned how to sign the contemporary music, capturing the lyrics with her hands and peppy facial expressions. (As I was writing this article, my nine year old daughter Addie and her friend Libby saw me looking at Skye’s link on the app, and were immediately interested, asking how she learned to sign, and trying to follow along with her. Within just five seconds of watching one of Skye’s videos, she instantly had three new fans, myself included.) There’s just something about each of Skye’s presentations, even though they’re only a quarter of a minute long, that are infectious, mesmerizing, and downright fun to watch.
It’s hard to believe that Skye has only been studying American Sign Language for about a year! Her interest has grown so strong that she’s now considering possible careers she can specialize in someday, including becoming a sign language interpreter, working in a classroom with deaf and hearing impaired students, and even working as a musical sign language interpreter at concerts.
Skye admits that signing has become such a huge part of her life that she even signs in her sleep! “I sign when I’m dreaming,” she laughs. “In class I’ll start signing, but I don’t even realize it until my friends point it out. I’m always finger spelling with my hands,” she adds. She realizes that now instead of answering “fine” or “okay” she now signs those words, confusing people who don’t know ASL (yet). In typical eighth grade girl fashion, she giggles as she shares, “My friends are always asking me, “What did you just say?”
On some of Skye’s musical.ly performances she is seen in sign language duets with friends she has made who also know how to sign, making her experience signing songs a collaborative one.
Skye has also found quite a following on the subset of musical.ly with an app called live.ly, which is a live video chat. According to the description of the app, “You can broadcast your life to the world as it happens, and also initiate group video chat with your friends to hang out virtually.” (Her friends on musical.ly are notified when she is streaming on live.ly, and can watch her live. Live.ly members who aren’t friends with Skye on musical.ly can also see her streaming on live.ly, but do not have access to her screen name.) Skye started signing live using the app, and at times has had over a thousand people watching her in real time as she signs. Her parents, obviously concerned about their daughter’s cyber safety, are quick to ensure that she follows strict privacy rules.
One of the options that live.ly users have is that they can make donations to other live.ly members as those members broadcast live. Skye, who never imagined that people would consider donating money to her for signing lyrics to popular songs, was pleasantly surprised when her “fans” began donating money to her as she signed. Most teenagers who are gifted money would start figuring out how to spend it, perhaps imagining themselves buying a new phone or iPad. Skye, however, is not like most teens, and rather than use the money on herself, she decided instead to donate it all to charity.
On Tuesday, December 13, 2016 Skye presented the principal of the Monarch School a check for $560. The mission of the Monarch School is “to educate students impacted by homelessness and to help them develop hope for a future with the necessary skills and experiences for personal success.” According to the school’s website, there are over 23,000 homeless students in San Diego County, and the Monarch School “is dedicated to helping homeless students break the cycle of poverty through education.” They focus on social growth, emotional support, academic growth, and life skills. The school, which serves students three meals a day and provides shower facilities, is always in need of any contribution, great or small, and Skye humbly donated the money people gifted to her so that Monarch students could have Christmas presents.
Skye’s mother Debbie is so proud of her daughter, sharing, “I’m really thrilled that Skye has found her passion in life at such a young age! I think that is not the case for most people. Signing makes her so happy.” Knowing Skye has selflessly passed along the donations made to her for doing something she loves is just the icing on the cake.
Even though her friend Max now lives thousands of miles away, he and Skye continue to communicate via FaceTime, helping Skye to strengthen her ASL skills as well as “visit” with the friend who sparked her interest in sign language.
Skye says she will continue to donate the money she is gifted from her fellow live.ly members to other organizations in need of financial contributions. Speaking about her donation to the Monarch School, Skye says, “Seeing all the homeless kids really made me realize how fortunate I am to live in Coronado, and it felt great to be able to help them.” Her musical.ly posts have already received over 2.47 million “hearts” and 2.49 million “emoji-love”, but it’s the love in Skye’s own heart for sign language and the kindness she embodies that truly “speak” the loudest.
