Q1: I think the need for a POSITIVE community online and offline for teens hasn't been met. It's discouraging for me as a teen. #dsma
— Sarah (@meow_its_sarah) June 11, 2015
I was honestly surprised that more people hadn't noticed this gaping hole in the #DOC, but then I remembered that the #DOC is mostly filled with (amazing) adults. While there are places for college-aged diabetics, there aren't many places for diabetic teens that want a positive community of people to talk to. Project Blue November has a panel of teens that answer submitted questions about a given topic each month, but there isn't really room for discussion there. Tumblr is also a place where most teens go to talk diabetes, but it is often a negative place for a teen to go. Many people on tumblr go to escape, so there is a lot of negativity (I'm not bashing this awesome project, just giving everyone an example of how tumblr seems to be for teens) surrounding diabetes there.
I've been hoping that someone else would realize this and get on it, but after seeing this tweet, I've come to accept that I'm going to have to do something about this. So here I am telling you that I will start a tweet chat for type 1 diabetic teens. I don't have a hashtag, (though I'm thinking about #t1tchat. It hasn't been used and is short and sweet.) I have no website, haven't talked to many people about it, but it will happen. I'm hoping that I can start it by the beginning of August, but I need your help to get it done.
How can you help? Simple. Find blogs, tudiabetes accounts, twitter accounts, facebook pages, google + accounts, tumblrs, and anyplace else on the web there is a teen with type 1 diabetes and send their links my way. You can email them to me, (inulinpensink@gmail.com) tweet/ direct message me, (@sarahspillerr on twitter), use any other social media link on the sidebar, or just comment on my blog to let me know.
I'm on the hunt for people too and I'm definitely going to create a home for this chat on the internet soon. If you have any suggestions or think you could help, I'd love if you could comment below or email me!
Moral of the Story: I'm ready for a new adventure.
I think this is a great initiative on your part, and it definitely focuses on an underserved piece of the D-population! (And I'm so sorry I missed that tweet when you wrote it. #dsma chats scroll by so fast).
ReplyDeleteJust off of the top of my head, I'd say to create a blog dedicated to this idea. Even if it only gets one post, it can start as a discussion (i.e. when do we start, how many are interested) and then serve as a static page just to tell people the who, when, and where. (teens, whatever-night and time, Twitter at #t1tchat). Then as word spreads, people could be directed to that page, rather than have to communicate all the details (in 140 characters or less) each time.
Be proud, Sarah. This is a great initiative!
Thanks so much for the advice and the tweet, Scott!
DeleteI'll definitely be making a website soon, and getting data from other teens before I start is an awesome plan I'll have to put into place!