The 2020s saw the end of Karla Rodriguez’s 20/20 vision. The 31-year-old journalist stepped off the train one day and found she could no longer read the signs guiding her to her street exit. “It made me really sad because I used to brag that I never wore braces and I never wore glasses,” she says.
Rodriguez has joined a rapidly expanding group. Almost half the global population is projected to have myopia, or nearsightedness, by 2050, according to a 2016 Ophthalmology study. While myopia usually emerges during childhood, adults are not immune, and many of their current lifestyles introduce the risk factors thought to be driving this upward trend.
