Author: GBM Team

American Eagle’s intimates brand, Aerie, has always been a leader in featuring real, unretouched women in their product campaigns. They do a great job of not making the individuals featured seem like outliers, or the spotlighted exception to the traditional model – rather, they’re there. They’re featured in ads and product listings, no big deal, as if they were the norm. Because, guess what, they are the norm. So this week when we tapped into our social feeds, we were super excited to see a face we recognized right there on the product listing, our friend Gaylyn Henderson of Gutless and Glamorous. There’s no denying Gaylyn is gorgeous and brave and strong and unashamed. She’s the perfect representation of ostomates and IBDers for a spot like this. We’re SO proud of her and so overjoyed to see a company like Aerie include her among others with varying diseases and disabilities in their product features. Having women like her featured is a total...

"Listen" wasn't the theme of the 2018 #HealtheVoices conference. It was actually Stronger Together. The #StrongerTogether theme was reflected throughout the entire conference, as empowered patient advocates and industry experts came together for valuable sessions on things like podcasting, caregiving, photography, social media, and so much more. Attendees informally got together to host impromptu Facebook live sessions, Twitter chats, and even in-person meetups. Nearly everyone brought their skills to share, enough for the whole class. Collaborate, learn, and become Stronger Together, we did. That same theme was reflected as attendees shared their own disease stories and experiences within their own condition communities. Being diagnosed with one condition made individuals stronger for when a second diagnosis came along. It has made people stronger when chronic conditions turn, and now the patient is the caregiver. Every single person in attendance has grown stronger because of the things life has handed them, and then, because of the communities they've built around them. An empowered patient advocate...