When we first told Benji Earl’s story in 2019, alongside that of his sister, Sadie, he was a bright, active 10-year-old from New Plymouth whose world had been opened up by bilateral cochlear implants. Back then, his mum Nicola reflected: that “… the implants have given them the option to do everything a typical Kiwi kid would do and that’s an amazing thing.”
In 2026, Benji is now 17 and showing just how true those words have become.
He has grown into a remarkable young man with a clear sense of who he is and a list of achievements that would impress anyone.
Hip hop dance has been central to Benji’s life since he was around seven years old. Today, he’s competing at an international level and stepping up as a leader for younger crew members.
“There’s two groups,” Benji explains. “One has around nine people, and the other ranges from between 16 to 23.”
In the larger ‘mega crew’ group, which spans students from Year 9 through to Year 13, Benji took on a leadership role last year.
“I was one of the three leaders,” he says simply. “We just help everyone else out when they need help.”
That ‘helping out’ has taken him a long way from home.
In 2024, Benji’s crew qualified for international competitions and travelled to Arizona and Los Angeles in the United States.
“We qualified for – or signed up for – competitions in New Zealand, and then one of them was a world qualifier,” he says.
Watching crews from around the globe was an eye-opener.
“You got to watch all the other crews from all different countries and some of the dancers from other countries included their culture,” he says, “which is really cool.”
Back home in New Zealand, the competition circuit takes Benji to Hamilton, Auckland and Hastings. It’s a schedule that requires commitment and funding.
To help cover costs, he works part-time at Woolworths.
Outside of dance and work, Benji has just finished Year 12 and is now enrolled in a Level 3 Early Childhood Education qualification that combines three days a week of placement at a kindergarten or primary school with two days of classroom study.
He credits his years helping train junior dancers at the studio as the spark. “I used to help train the little kids at dance,” he says. “They’re fun to hang out with.”
As for his cochlear implants? They’re simply part of who he is.
Benji doesn’t get many questions about them these days.
But there’s a quiet acknowledgement that the implants and his passion for dance are connected: without them, the music – and everything that has followed – might not have been possible at all.
Life right now, Benji says, is pretty much “study and hip hop” – plus friends, work and the next competition on the horizon.
A world qualifier, a leadership role, a new career path, and a life lived fully and on his own terms sounds like exactly what his family hoped for.
Benji’s original story was published in the 2019 edition of this newsletter. You can read a catch-up with his sister Sadie, who also has bilateral cochlear implants, here.
Photos: Tammie Pittwood Photography