As a child, no one says 'When I grow up I'm going to have short blonde hair and wear red glasses', says Emmy award-winning TV talk show host Sally Jessy Raphael.

Yet those red glasses became Raphael's trademark, emblazoned on bumper stickers and publicity paraphernalia across the country. Her desk is loaded with photos from fans their babies, dogs, and cats sporting red frames. And it all happened by chance.

'I never had eye problems', Raphael says. But when she made the move to television eight years ago, she couldn't see the teleprompter from the top of the set.

'I saw an ad in a publication for a chain optical. I don't think there was a choice of frame styles and I thought it unusual that the glasses were red. But I never thought I was actually going to wear them. Although in the beginning I took them on and off, I couldn't continue to do that', Raphael says. And the glasses became a permanent fixture.

But who wants to wear the same pair of glasses for eight years, trademark or not? 'About four years ago I wanted to choose a pair for their attractiveness - that fit my face, my nose, my bridge, etc.', Raphael says. 'I told Bert (producer Bert Dubrow) that I was going to bring in a selection of red glasses. I knew if we were going to change we'd have to keep red.' Raphael's husband, daughter, producer and publicist all chose a pair, but no one could make a decision. The new frames project was shelved until mid-1990 when director of publicity Cindy Schneider decided to bring the viewers into the act.

A stylist from the show called some frame manufacturers at random, and soon 300 pairs arrived at the studio. The selection was narrowed down to 10 pairs from Marchon/Marcolin, Luxottica, Christian Roth for Optical Affairs, and New York eyewear store Outer Visions. All of them were acceptable to Raphael. and she wore a pair every day for 10 days. A recap followed, and then viewers were asked to call in and vote for the pair they liked best.

Over 30,000 viewers responded, and the winning pair, from Marcolin, made their debut in December of 1990. The frames, which are marbelized black and red with gold detail on the temple, are squarer and thinner and very flattering to Raphael. She is pleased.

Don't think that the one pair of glasses will last a lifetime though. Raphael estimates that she went through at least 40 pairs of the old style. 'We will go through 10 pairs in a snap' she says.

And paparazzi, beware. Don't try to snap a photo of Raphael if you catch her without her glasses on. 'By contract do I at no time appear without the glasses or an photographed without them. If it happens, we ask for the film back' she says.

Could there be a line of Sally Jessy Raphael eyewear in the future? 'To the public, I represent glasses' she says. 'Yet no one in the industry has every approached me. Isn't that unusual that no one in the eyewear industry has ever thought of me that way?'

Manufacturers, are you listening?