As daily life becomes increasingly screen driven, from Zoom calls and scrolling to digital classrooms and late night streaming, optometrist Irina Yakubin is working to make eye health education more accessible, approachable, and community centered in Santa Monica.
Yakubin, an optometrist and founder of OptiHealth Optometry, practices within Montana Eyes on Montana Avenue and is quickly building a reputation for combining modern eye care with public education and local outreach. “My practice is a general optometry practice with an emphasis on dry eye, low vision, and medical care. I spend a good amount of my personal time digging into the latest and greatest advances in medical eye care,” said Yakubin.
Yakubin, who has practiced in Santa Monica since 2023, and is approaching her third anniversary locally, says one of the biggest misconceptions in healthcare is how infrequently people prioritize their vision until something is wrong. “We know to go to our primary care doctor every year. We know to go to the dentist every six months, but we only have two eyes, and most people don’t go to the eye doctor unless there is something wrong.”
That educational gap inspired two new initiatives launched over the past year with The Eye Care Guide, a patient friendly book designed to help readers better understand their eye health, and About My Eyes, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to eye care education. First released digitally late last year before expanding into paperback, the book was intentionally designed for modern readers. “Instead of walls and walls of text, it’s bite sized bits of information. It’s designed for a scrolling friendly generation,” she added.
The timing comes as eye strain, dry eye symptoms, blurred vision, and digital fatigue continue to rise alongside increased screen exposure across all age groups. Yakubin says she regularly sees patients experiencing symptoms tied to prolonged digital device use, particularly among younger generations who grew up immersed in screens during and after the pandemic. She believes that dry eye syndrome is an ocular surface disease that can and should be treated, not something people just have to live with, a misconception she hears from patients. “You’re not just getting an eye exam. You’re getting a little tour of what’s going on with your eyes.”
That educational approach extends beyond the exam room. Through About My Eyes, Yakubin has already begun conducting presentations with community organizations including local police activity groups and the YMCA, while also exploring future collaborations with schools and youth organizations across Santa Monica. “This was something I was already passionate about to go into the community and explaining eye care and why people need regular eye exams. I was doing that as one person and as a business owner, and then I thought what if we could scale this?,” she added.
Yakubin says the nonprofit was formed with a growing network of professionals who shared the same mission of making eye health education clearer, more approachable, and more proactive. Beyond optometry, Yakubin brings an eclectic personality to her practice. A longtime animal lover, she says Montana Eyes is intentionally pet friendly, often with dogs greeting patients in the office. She also trains in Krav Maga and jujitsu, balancing what she describes as two very different sides of herself; one rooted in healing and care, the other in discipline and defense.
Her path into eye care was also deeply personal. Nearsighted since childhood, Yakubin began wearing glasses around age five and says getting contact lenses later in life transformed her confidence and perspective. Born in Ukraine, she initially resisted family pressure toward traditional career paths, wanting instead to become a writer. "I told my mom I wanted to be a writer, she said no,” she said. While doing her yndergrad at UCLA, she knew she was going into healthcare, and began shadowing various health care professions and majored in history to stand out as an applicant vs other traditional STEM majors.
In many ways, she found a way to do both. Today, Yakubin continues to write educational content alongside her clinical practice and nonprofit work, blending storytelling with healthcare advocacy. “When I realized other people weren’t consistently receiving eye care and didn’t know how important it was, that’s when I knew I wanted to focus on this,” she said.