I often get asked the question, “How are you so positive with your diabetes?”. To be completely honest, I wasn’t always and there are still days where it gets to me. I was diagnosed at a young age, and so I didn’t understand completely what it was. However, when I reached 5th grade, it started to really hit me. Hard, actually. I had an incident with low blood sugar at a friend’s house, and it scared her mom so bad that I never got invited back. I began to feel like a burden to people, and I would feel bad when I went to hang out with my other friends because their moms had to be vigilant of me. Previously I had told people I was diabetic upfront so they would know, but I started to fear that people would judge me for it, and so I just stopped telling people about it and let them figure it out themselves. Sometimes people would know me for a few months without knowing I was diabetic. This only made me feel worse about it, because I was hiding part of who I was. People were making rude comments about diabetes saying things that really made me self conscious like the stereotypical, “You have diabetes?You don’t look fat!” and “Why don’t you just eat salad?”. I took this very personally, even though I know that they just weren’t educated on what diabetes really was. I should have educated them, but instead I got angry because I felt it was already hard enough without them commenting on MY disease. I was so angry that I had diabetes, and so I began to think of it so negatively, as something that absolutely ruined my life. I would hide my pump under my clothes and not check my blood sugar in front of other people. I was so embarrassed. I had been going to diabetes camp for a few years, but I hadn’t hung out with any of them outside of it, so I felt like I was the only one in the world who was like this when I was away from camp. Around the end of sixth grade, I made my Instagram account,  @diabeticlife_  , which I have now renamed @typeoneriley . I wanted to find more people like myself that I could connect with and relate to. Ever since then, my outlook on Type One Diabetes has completely changed. It was a lot easier to stay in contact with my camp friends, and I started to hang out with them outside of camp. I talk to multiple people daily on my Instagram that make me feel like I am never alone. People ask me questions about how to do stuff and what brand of pump I use, and it has given me a purpose almost with my diabetes. I have met so many amazing people over these past years through social media that I have become so close to and that mean so much to me. I gained tons of confidence and instead of hiding my diabetes, I embrace it. It has helped shape me into the person I am today. I wear my pump visibly on my waistline, and even my sites on my stomach and arms while I am at the beach. I check my blood sugar in front of friends and take it as an opportunity to answer people’s questions. I am no longer ashamed. Now don’t get me wrong, there are still days where I’ll be upset about or overwhelmed by the responsibility of Type One Diabetes, sometimes I’ll even cry, but looking back on my life so far, I think my diagnosis may have been one of the best things that has ever happened to me. Because of diabetes, I have met so many wonderful friends, and I have been able to help other people. In the JDRF One Walk, I have been able to give back to the diabetes community. Through the support of family and friends, our team has raised over $100,000 in 10 years. I have been shown so much love and support by people I never would have met without my diabetes. A lot of people from my school follow my Instagram, so I have been fortunate enough to be in the position to educate people about the reality behind Type One Diabetes. If anyone reading this needs to talk about their diabetes, PLEASE message me, because I know talking to other people helped me so much, and I would love to be able to help people the same way!! Much love ❤