Building a Community with I Have The Sugars
I don’t believe there is such thing as one “Diabetes Community.” To me, that’s a misleading title, and one that left me disoriented and disinterested for almost nine years after I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 16. There is not one face or personality type that defines the population of us who live with diabetes. But back then, it certainly didn’t feel that way. I felt like everyone I saw on the cover of magazines or in TV commercials looked very, very different from me. Not to mention the 15 – 40 year age difference.
People with type 1 diabetes are individually unique, and we attract different tribes based on our vibes. If you are experiencing the feeling that is familiar to so many of us, like you don’t fit in to “The” Diabetes Community because you can’t relate to “It,” I challenge you not to shy away as I did, but instead look a little deeper. Peel back the layers. There are smaller communities within the greater pool of us, and I can almost promise you, there’s something out there for you. Don’t give up searching for the people who make you feel like you can be 100 percent who you already are. I didn’t have a lot of options back in 2004, and felt like I might go through my entire life never knowing another person with diabetes. Until a little friend named Instagram came into my life.
I posted the first Sugars photo Instagram on January 25, 2014. It got 18 likes. My next post got 1, and the next got 7. It was preeeeeeetty quiet on there, but it wasn’t about the likes.
After living in pretty serious denial and unwillingness to even speak to other people with type 1 diabetes for nearly a decade, these first few posts on Instagram were a really, really big deal. It was as if I was finally coming out of my type 1 diabetes (T1D) closet, and opening myself up to the possibility of finally connecting with someone else.
Mine is a story you’ve likely heard before. Diagnosed at the end of high school, I already had my life “figured out.” I had a great group of friends and a boyfriend. I thought I was going to play lacrosse forever. I wanted to go far, far away from my tiny town for college. I had big dreams to work in advertising one day. When 17-year-old Libby had envisioned her perfectly smooth sail into adulthood, she hadn’t factored in the experience of onboarding herself to the reality of living with diabetes. So, 17-year-old Libby buried it.
I still went far, far away to college. I played lacrosse for a little bit longer, joined a sorority, studied abroad, drank a lot of cheap vodka mixed with Crystal Light, and did all the things you’re supposed to do in college. On the outside it appeared that I had it all. Except for a relationship with someone with diabetes.
Fast forward to 2014 and I’m sitting in my tiny Boston apartment. I was chatting with my roommate about the blog I had started after college to help me cope with having type 1 and she asks me, “Have you met any of the people that read your blog?” The Sugars had existed as a quiet, non-invasive, disorganized WordPress site for a few years at that point, but so far as I was concerned, it was probably a dead end. So I said, “No, I still don’t know if I’m ready. Besides, I think only oddballs and older people read it, and I’m guessing they don’t need an anxiety-ridden 23-year-old in their life.” But then she asked, “What if you turned the blog into an Instagram?” and that’s when the lightbulb went off.
Instagram was only 4 years old in 2014, but we were already addicted. It was visual, it was different, it was hip and most importantly it was a place to creatively express ourselves through over-saturated and luxed filters. It was a terrible monster of a thing, but it was also the perfect place to try and start a conversation with T1Ds in my age group, that were into the same things as I was.
What would unfold over the next 4 years is something I never could have imagined or anticipated.
Shortly after launching The Sugars Instagram, I left my comfortable world in Boston to take a job and okay, fine, partially “follow” my now fiancé down to NYC. It was the scariest year of my life. There was so much turbulence, but I had a full tank of creative gas that I wanted to use to turn The Sugars turned into something more significant. The more effort I poured into building a community with The Sugars, the more grounded I felt in my own world. My confidence in this new, crazy place started to ramp up. I quickly learned that New York City is the kind of place where everyone is passionate and open minded, so that meant I was becoming more passionate and open minded. I began to open up, share more personal stories and interact back with the people following my posts. I started to get emails from people about how much The Sugars was helping them get through their own battles. The conversations I was beginning to have with people with type 1 diabetes, even if they were still mostly digital at the time, ended up being one of my primary sources of strength during that insanely transitional year. And, from that year on, the floodgates opened. I became involved with Beyond Type 1, I started a Sugars branded shop, I’ve met hundreds of inspiring, authentic, creative, hilarious and adventurous people that I now have the privilege of calling my friends. I no longer feel the walls between myself, my diabetes and other T1Ds. Because of Instagram, The Sugars has created a community of people who want to reach their highest potential while also living with diabetes. It’s a group who believe in themselves, advocate for others and openly work through the mess that is diabetes to get back to the best part of life. I aspire to be more like my followers every single day.
I am overcome with joy every time I see a post of someone wearing a Sugars tee out in the wild, especially to a place I would still be too self-conscious to wear it. I am often moved to tears whenever I receive a message from someone who needs advice, or has recently overcome a fear because of the little community that is The Sugars. It hasn’t all been roses for me, but even when I’ve needed breaks from it all, I’ve come back to a group of people who have open arms and hearts, willing to work with me through my own imperfections. It’s one of the most authentically human spaces I think I’ve ever existed in, and to think it was conjured up in a tiny apartment in the North End of Boston is so humbling.
The original dream was simple: I wanted to create a safe space to empower young people, especially women, with T1D to feel a part of something after feeling lost throughout their teen and college years. And all because that’s where I had been lost for so long. The coolest part about this entire experience? I’m the one who feels like I was found, and I’m so grateful.
Learn more about Beyond Type 1’s Global Ambassador Council.
