Hello! I have a character who has esotropia. I myself have esotropia but it is not really noticeable unless I take off my glasses. I wanted this character’s esotropia to be more visible because I always wanted to see people like me and just giving them glasses and not showing their eye often felt like a cheap cop-out. I also already have many other characters with glasses in this story and others. I have two questions about the character.
One, I’ve been researching and I am still unclear on whether all forms of esotropia require glasses and if they would experience any reduced vision or other symptoms.
Two, the character struggles with self-worth and an obsession with being conventionally attractive (not just about their facial difference, the obsession effects several other parts of their appearance as well). With the help of their friends, they gradually learn to accept themselves as they are. The character is a fairy and has the ability to cast minor spells that change small parts of their appearance. I had the idea for them to hide their facial difference (as that is something ive tried to do myself) with their magic and then stop hiding it (and other parts of their appearance) as they become more comfortable with themselves. Is this okay to do? The character largely draws on my own experience and is in a way a vent character but I don’t want to spread harmful ideas with my work.
I have exotropia, not esotropia, but hopefully I can be helpful anyway. How exciting to hear about some good representation!
There's accommodative esotropia, which can be corrected with glasses. It sounds like this might be your type, since you say yours isn't noticeable with glasses on. There's also non-accommodative, which cannot be corrected with glasses. That might be a good angle for your character.
As for vision issues: double vision is an issue for a lot of us. In some cases, it can be corrected with prism lenses. This wouldn't necessarily make the eye appear the same as an average eye.
Another way it can affect vision is amblyopia: sometimes the brain can suppress the image from one eye (particularly if the esotropia is present from a very young age). These people would have other vision issues (poor depth perception, limited visual field, etc). This is commonly known as a lazy eye - people often incorrectly call strabismus a "lazy eye", but it's a misnomer!
My particular strabismus cannot be corrected with glasses, and it "drifts" too much for prism lenses to be effective in correcting my double vision, either. I wear an occlusive (opaque) contact lens to block the vision in the affected eye. It doesn't hide the position of my eye, and actually makes it stand out slightly more from my unaffected blue eye since it's black. It's my understanding that it's not an especially common treatment, but it may be an option for your character. It's also fine for them to not wear anything for their vision.
As for your second question: I personally feel that a disabled person drawing from their own experiences is almost always going to be an appropriate way to write something. I think a story that shows a journey toward self-acceptance is one of the best ways of including the experience of that kind of shame that people often have with their disabilities.