I was 17 years old when I was diagnosed with Lupus.
It was the first time I was hospitalized as a teen, and it was the first time my family had to intimately navigate our City’s healthcare system. We were uninsured and unfamiliar, a reality for so many working-class families and working New Yorkers in our City. Lupus forever changed the course of my life and that of my community’s, paving the way for the woman and leader I’ve become.
