This 20-Year-Old Living With Crohn’s Disease Is Helping Other Young Girls Feel Beautiful With Their Ostomy Bags
According to the CDC, approximately 3.1 million U.S. adults– or a little over one percent of the population– have been diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Included under this IBD umbrella is Crohn’s disease– a chronic condition that causes irritation and inflammation of the digestive tract.
After being diagnosed, therapeutic options such as medication may be a helpful treatment course for many. For up to seventy-five percent of people with Crohn’s disease, though, surgery is eventually needed.
This was the reality that twenty-year-old Paula Sojo had to face just last year. She was only nineteen-years-old at the time and remembered spending six months laid up in a hospital bed because of Crohn’s disease.
Then, during the tail end of her stay, Paula was given her first ostomy bag. An ostomy surgery is a life-saving procedure that allows bodily waste to exit the body into a pouch located on the abdomen, known as an ostomy bag.
Despite this new accessory giving Paula her health back, though, she could not help but feel ashamed.
After all, she was sitting amongst patients who were decades older than her and thinking about how she was probably the only teenage girl walking around with an ostomy bag.
So, this overwhelming feeling understandably led Paula to feel depressed, isolated and embarrassed about having Crohn’s disease.
TikTok; pictured above is Paula in a video
But, in just one year, the twenty-year-old has managed to turn her pain into inspiration. Paula has since begun sharing her experience of living with a chronic illness on social media and has amassed over two hundred and ten thousand followers on TikTok because of it.
Primarily, her transparency and positivity are helping redefine what it is like living with Crohn’s disease. After all, Paula is a living example that the condition can affect anyone– and she is specifically helping young girls see the beauty in their baggage.
First, Paula loves fashion and shows young women with Crohn’s how to do everything from dress their ostomy bags to bedazzle them. And for those who prefer to keep their ostomy bags more hidden or secure, Paula also discusses the kinds of wardrobe options she covets as stables.
Aside from normalizing ostomy bags in fashion, though, Paula also keeps her TikTok account honest.
She shares realistic “day in my life” videos that show the not-so-glamorous sides of living with a chronic illness– such as going to doctor’s appointments and even shedding a couple of tears in the privacy of her home. Plus, Paula opens up about what it is like to date with a chronic illness and how she has cultivated her mental health.
But interestingly, Paula never imagined that her social media presence would balloon to have such an impact.
Back when she was first diagnosed with Crohn’s, it was actually Paula’s mother who encouraged her to make a “silly little TikTok.”
Just that one video, though, quickly gained over twenty thousand views. In the process, Paula also received an influx of comments from people around the globe who had Crohn’s disease and wanted to share their experiences with her.
So, at that moment, Paula had an epiphany: perhaps that was her opportunity to change the way Crohn’s was perceived by the public and work to make sure that no one ever felt alone like she had.
And now, it is safe to say that Paula has achieved her goal. On every single TikTok she posts, countless followers feel comfortable enough to ask Paula specific questions about her Crohn’s journey and share their own experiences, too.
So, in a way, Paula’s account has transformed into a forum for those with chronic illnesses to connect and tear down stigmas together. And for Paula, seeing this community blossom before her eyes has helped her own mental health immensely, too.
“I felt like I lost my purpose entirely through chronic illness. This [TikTok] really helps me know I do have a purpose,” she said in an interview with Teen Vogue.
If you are someone with Crohn’s disease who would love to connect with Paula and her loyal followers, or if you would simply like to learn more about this chronic illness, you can visit Paula’s TikTok account linked here.
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