Meet Hannah: Building a Beautiful Life with Type 1 Diabetes

I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when I was 10 years old. At that age, I didn’t fully understand what the diagnosis meant medically, I just knew my life had suddenly split into “before” and “after.” What I did understand immediately, though, was the feeling that came with it: I felt different. And more than anything, I felt alone. I didn’t know anyone else with type 1 diabetes. I didn’t see it represented in my daily life, at school, or in the people around me. I remember sitting in doctor’s offices learning how to manage everything—insulin, blood sugar checks, carb counting, but when I left, I still felt like I was navigating something no one else around me could fully understand. For a long time, I carried that feeling quietly. I learned how to manage diabetes on the outside, but internally I often felt disconnected from it and from other people. It wasn’t just the medical routine that felt heavy, it was the sense that I was experiencing something invisible and isolating.

Growing up, I was also a track and field athlete. Sports became one of the first spaces where I started to feel strong in my body instead of limited by it. Movement gave me discipline, structure, and confidence, and it slowly became one of the ways I learned how to trust myself again. But even as an athlete, I didn’t always see what it looked like to live a full, vibrant, beautiful life with type 1 diabetes. I didn’t see enough conversations about what it meant to not only manage this condition, but to thrive within it, to train, to move, to grow, and to build a life that still felt meaningful. As I got older, I started to realize something important: I wasn’t just learning how to manage diabetes, I was learning how to build a life that felt beautiful with it in it. That realization is what eventually led me to start sharing my life online.

At first, it wasn’t intentional. I didn’t see myself as someone telling my story. I was just showing up honestly, sharing my workouts, my lifestyle, and naturally, my experiences living with type 1 diabetes. I stopped hiding it. I stopped trying to make it invisible. I began sharing it as part of my life, not something separate from it. Because fitness and movement have always been such a big part of who I am, I also began sharing that side of my life, my training, my workouts, and how I navigate staying active while living with type 1 diabetes. I want to show that movement is not only possible with this condition, but powerful. It has supported my mental health, confidence, and relationship with my body in ways I never expected.

Over time, something unexpected started happening. Other young women with type 1 diabetes began reaching out to me. Some were newly diagnosed and overwhelmed. Others had been living with it for years but had never seen someone speak about it so openly while also living a lifestyle that felt so full, confident, and beautiful. So many of them said the same thing in different ways: they thought they were alone. That stayed with me. Because I realized that was exactly how I had felt at 10 years old, isolated, unsure, and disconnected from anyone who understood what I was experiencing.

Sharing my story didn’t just help others feel less alone. It changed how I felt about my own diagnosis, too. It gave me something I didn’t have when I was younger: community. And it helped me redefine what life with type 1 diabetes could look like. A beautiful life. Not a perfect one. Not an easy one. But one that is full, active, expressive, and deeply lived.

Today, I use my platform to show what that can look like as a young woman, former athlete, and fitness and lifestyle creator building a life that doesn’t shrink because of diabetes, but expands alongside it. I want other girls and women to know they don’t have to hide their devices or wait for a “before and after” moment in their lives. Their life is already happening. And it can still be beautiful within this. My goal is not to make diabetes look easy or to minimize the challenges that come with it. It’s to show that it is possible to live fully, move freely, and build a life that feels beautiful and meaningful while living with it.

Looking back, I wish I had seen more of that when I was younger, more examples of people who were not just surviving, but visibly living well. Now, I hope I can be that person for someone else. Because sometimes the most powerful thing we can do is simply share our story, and in doing so, remind someone else that a beautiful life is still possible for them, too.