All of us at Next Step want to send a heartfelt thank you to Brenda Emily for taking over our Instagram page on Tuesday for National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.
Brenda is a young adult who is HIV+ and has attended Next Step’s Summer Campference program. Over the last few years, she has become an advocate for young people who are HIV+. She has partnered with a number of advocacy organizations and campaigns, in the United States and Europe, to help raise awareness around the experiences of living with HIV and reduce social stigmas around the chronic illness. Brenda is a rockstar in the HIV advocacy community and just “gets it”! Her message can really help other young people that are walking in her shoes and that’s why she was the perfect person to launch our first Tuesday Takeover on our Instagram page!
CLICK HERE to watch Brenda’s Tuesday Takeover on our Instagram page.
During her Tuesday Takeover, Brenda covered the following topics:
- The importance of National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.
- Disclosing your diagnosis
- Undetected Equals Untransmittable (U=U)
- Struggling with mental health and personal experiences of coping with her diagnosis
- Finding Next Step and our community, music and mentorship programs
- Her fears when attending Next Step’s Summer Campference program for the first time
- “What you’ll find at a Next Step Summer Campference” for potential attendees
- The life-changing impact that Next Step has had on her life, from attending our Summer Campference program to speaking at our annual spring benefit
- Her inspiration to become an advocate for young people who are HIV+
- She also answered questions from our audience!
We are so grateful she shared her story, knowledge and advice on our Instagram page. Thank you Brenda for sharing your story, your knowledge and your advice! Also, THANK YOU for doing a great job in explaining the Next Step story! YOU ARE AMAZING AND CHANGING LIVES!
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