DiabaddieOrg.

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The place where all the baddies with T1D be
Making life better, one DiaBaddie at a time
501(c)(3) • EST 2019 by

Jet Lag Isn’t Just Being TiredSorry I’m late, but truthfully, my body is still in another time zone.I started writing to...
07/13/2026

Jet Lag Isn’t Just Being Tired

Sorry I’m late, but truthfully, my body is still in another time zone.

I started writing to you this week from Los Angeles after flying in from New Orleans. Then I got caught up spending time with my family, flew back to Baltimore, landed at 5:00 a.m., and went straight to my internship because I genuinely love the work I’m doing right now.

So yes… ya girl is “Jet Lagged”.

By Friday, I crashed and realized I needed to write a letter for everybody: Diabaddies, our allies, and anyone who’s ever traveled and wondered why their body felt completely off afterward.

We need to talk about what flying, changing time zones, interrupted sleep, irregular meals, and sprinting through airports actually does to the body.
All of these things can affect glucose levels, and that doesn’t just affect people living with diabetes.

Nobody’s safe.

The Truth

That “Biological Clock” is REAL …
I can’t believe I have to face my fate and tell y’all that I used to be one of those silly people who thought the body couldn’t tell what time it was. Since then, I’ve learned not to speak too confidently before doing the research.

Your brain has a master clock called the suprachiasmatic nucleus, or (SCN), that uses light and darkness to help regulate when you sleep, wake up, feel hungry, release hormones, and perform at your best.

When you cross time zones, the clock on your phone changes immediately, but your internal clock is still following the schedule you just left. It then has to slowly reset itself using cues like sunlight, sleep, meals, and activity, which is why I can be physically standing in Baltimore while my body is still operating like it’s in Los Angeles.

That temporary mismatch is jet lag, and it affects my sleep, focus, digestion, mood, and physical performance until my body catches up.

So yes… My body absolutely knows what time it is. It just may not agree with the time zone I’m in yet.

Flying Can Push The Body's Glucose Levels in Either Direction

🎥 Click To Watch Me Chat About Topics Like This In Real Life

🧠 The OGDiabaddie Brain Dump

🎵 OGDiabaddie Soundtrack

Let's Peek Into Next Week ...

Check out our event on Sunday, Jul 19, 2026.

Click here for an update from Diabaddie!

Our Community Is Bigger Than a Trademark.I’m writing to you today from New Orleans, where I’m attending my very first Es...
07/05/2026

Our Community Is Bigger Than a Trademark.

I’m writing to you today from New Orleans, where I’m attending my very first Essence Festival. Being surrounded by thousands of women celebrating one another’s stories, creativity, businesses, and impact has been such a beautiful reminder of what can happen when a community intentionally chooses to uplift its own.

As I’ve walked through this weekend, I couldn’t help but think about the Diabaddie community.

I never imagined that one of the most vulnerable weeks in Diabaddie history would happen because of a trademark.

Over the last year, thousands of people have discovered The Diabaddie Organization. Hundreds have reached out with encouragement, shared our story, and welcomed others into this community. Some of you even subscribed to this newsletter because everything happening online led you here.

If that’s you…

Welcome.

The Truth

This Was Never About Winning Ownership...
When I started calling myself a “Diabaddie”, I wasn’t trying to build an internet personality or a profitable brand. I wasn’t even thinking about a trademark.

I was trying to survive.

I was a nineteen-year-old Black woman living with Type 1 diabetes who desperately needed language that reminded me I wasn’t broken.

The word gave me confidence before it ever became a brand.

Eventually it became an organization.

Then scholarships.

Then diabetes camp.

Then research.

Then mentorship.

Then future healthcare professionals.

Then friendships that now feel like sisterhood.

People often ask me why I protected the name. The answer is simple. Because somewhere along the way, “Diabaddie” stopped belonging only to me.

It became something much bigger.

Why Does The Trademark Matter?

🎥 Click To Watch It In Real Life

🧠 The OGDiabaddie Brain Dump

🎵 OGDiabaddie Soundtrack

Let's Peek Into Next Week ...

Check out our event on Sunday, Jul 12, 2026.

Click here for an update from Diabaddie!

I Quit Johns Hopkins When I Realized Diabaddie’s Need More.I’m writing to you this week from my dorm at Morgan State Uni...
06/28/2026

I Quit Johns Hopkins When I Realized Diabaddie’s Need More.

I’m writing to you this week from my dorm at Morgan State University (MSU). It’s summertime, but somehow I’m still going back and forth to campus for my internship. Funny enough, that’s exactly how my Baltimore story began.

When I graduated from Florida International University in 2023, I accepted an internship in Residence Life at MSU. Helping students secure housing accommodations sparked a passion for advocacy, that eventually got me an offer at Johns Hopkins Medicine as a Diabetes Navigator on my first R01 research study.

Before I was a graduate student, I was already doing the work. Before I even knew what a Master of Public Health was, life had already enrolled me in one.

As a Diabetes Navigator, I became the bridge between children living with Type 1 diabetes, their families, physicians, and the research team. I coordinated care, managed appointments, helped families navigate barriers, and supported up to seventy-five patients throughout the study.

Every day, I had a front-row seat to what living with Type 1 diabetes really looked like once families walked out of the doctor’s office.

The Truth

I Was Forced To Resign; But Not By Who You Think...
Between me and God, I knew my season there was over.
I felt that conviction as early as July 2024, but I ignored it because I loved my job. I loved my patients. And despite how demanding the work was, I couldn’t imagine leaving.

But as my one-year anniversary approached, the conviction only grew stronger. I started at Johns Hopkins in December 2023. By January 2025, I had resigned.

Not because I stopped believing in the work.

Not because I stopped loving my patients.

Not because I lost faith in research.

I left because I could no longer ignore the disconnect between clinical care and the psychosocial needs of Diabaddie’s. The clinic taught me how to treat diabetes. But Diabaddie taught me what it actually feels like to live with it socially.

As I wrestled with that decision, my future felt increasingly uncertain. Funding for research grants like the one I worked on was becoming more vulnerable, and many companies were laying employees off, and beginning to fear what cuts could mean for the future of care.

Then something happened I couldn’t ignore.

Just a few months after I took that leap of faith, and left, The Diabaddie Organization received its first seed grant of $25,000.

To anyone else, it may have looked like a grant. To me, it felt like confirmation.

God wasn’t asking me to walk away from the work.

It was a calling to do it differently.

What Have I Been Doing?

🎥 See It In Real Life

🧠 The OGDiabaddie Brain Dump

Why This Matters...

If we’re serious about improving the lives of people with Type 1 diabetes, we have to care about more than tracking blood sugars.

Key Takeaways

- Confidence and community go hand in hand.
- Representation and mental health go hand in hand.
- Education and purpose go hand in hand.

Let's Peek Into Next Week ...

Check out our event on Sunday, Jul 5, 2026.

Click here for an update from Diabaddie!

The Biggest Lie About Diabetes Camp Is That It's OptionalI'm writing to you this week from my best friend's garage in Ri...
06/21/2026

The Biggest Lie About Diabetes Camp Is That It's Optional

I'm writing to you this week from my best friend's garage in Richmond, Virginia. It feels fitting because this is where I hosted my first Diabaddie fundraiser to help send children to diabetes camp.

I knew how important camp was in 2022, and I feel even more strongly about it today.

Every summer, thousands of kids make lifelong memories and find community at camp. Yet many children living with Type 1 diabetes never get the chance to attend a camp designed just for them.

What's more frustrating is how little awareness there is of how life-changing a diabetes camp is... Not only for campers, but also for the counselors, healthcare professionals, and volunteers who experience it alongside them.

The Truth

The "Waitlist" Haunts Me...
While working as a Diabetes Navigator at Johns Hopkins on an R01 research study in 2024, I cared for over forty patients. One patient, however, has always stayed with me. They were receiving care at the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Day Hospital and were receiving emotional diabetes support.
During our interventions, they shared that they were tired of diabetes, didn't want to wear an insulin pump, and were struggling to keep up with their friends at school.

I immediately thought of Diabetes Camp.

I talked with both the child's parents and the physician I worked alongside about the idea because, to me, this was exactly the kind of child who needed camp. The mental and emotional support of being surrounded by people who truly understood what they were going through was needed.

The child had never been to a diabetes camp and was immediately signed up, but remained on the waitlist. Unfortunately, they never got the opportunity to attend. During the first week of camp, they went into diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA).

From that day forward, I couldn't stop thinking, "If only they had made it to camp."

That's when I realized diabetes camp wasn't just about summer fun and making diabetic friends. It's a part of survival.

🎥 See It In Real Life

🧠 The OGDiabaddie Brain Dump

Why This Matters...

Diabetes camp deserves greater investment.

Key Takeaways
- Camp care does not stop with the camper.
- One week at camp can shape a lifetime of care.
- Medical schools and universities should be investing in camp, too.

Let's Peek Into Next Week ...

Check out our event on Sunday, Jun 28, 2026.

Click here for an update from Diabaddie!

Diabetes & Perfectionism Are The Real Reason I've Been Quiet I am venting to you from my bathtub in Baltimore, Maryland,...
06/14/2026

Diabetes & Perfectionism Are The Real Reason I've Been Quiet

I am venting to you from my bathtub in Baltimore, Maryland, with a desire to finally be naked and unafraid to share what's been going on in my twenty-something-year-old Diabaddie life.

"Why do I struggle to stay consistent with the Diabaddie community I built?"

It's a question I've been asked since 2021, just two years after founding the organization. Since then, I've connected with diabetic baddies around the world through social media, events, and our programs. But when it comes to showing up consistently for my girls, I've often found myself doing it in short bursts.

The answer to this always brings me back to the same place: the relationship between "perfectionism" and "diabetes burnout".

The Truth

I Had A Panic Attack ...
On March 31, 2026, I started therapy for the first time in nearly two years after having a mental breakdown during a low blood sugar scare in the shower. But the breakdown wasn't because I was afraid of going low. It was because I was disappointed in myself for not estimating my carbs well enough at dinner, in order to to take a shower without interruption.

By talking through this in my counseling sessions, I learned that living with a chronic illness has taught me to equate "control" with "safety" and leave very little room for grace.

I Feel Like The "Range" Has Been Holding Me Hostage ...
Managing Type 1 diabetes since age six trained me to plan my life around a target glucose range of 80–160 mg/dL and do everything possible to stay as close to perfectly within that range for as long as possible.

If your sugar goes too LOW, below 80, you could pass out.
If your sugar goes too HIGH, above 160, you're at risk of getting sick, or even worst diabetic keto acidosis.

In diabetes management, the stakes are high enough that perfection can feel necessary. Sometimes, it can feel like life or death. But somewhere along the way, I realized I had started applying those same standards to the rest of my life.

If the outcome wasn't perfect, I kept it hidden. I "deaded" projects, ideas, and opportunities as if they had never existed. But if the results met my expectations, I gave them life and shared them confidently with others.

I believe part of this mindset comes from growing up with diabetes before modern technology.

In 2010, if I didn't have good numbers, I could simply avoid logging them or erase them from my meter before an endocrinology appointment. Today, insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors create a real-time record of my diabetes management.

And while I'm grateful for the doctors and technology that help keep me alive, there are moments when having diabetes can feel a little like being on house arrest.

Fast forward to 2026, and technology gives my care team access to almost every mistake I make and view every moment I'm not perfectly in range. So now, not only do I have devices connected to my body reminding me to stay on track, but I also carry the subconscious belief that someone is always watching to make sure I get it right.

Recognizing that made me wonder how many other Diabaddies are carrying the same burden.

"How many of us are living with diabetes burnout while quietly trying to be perfect in every other area of life, too?

🎥 See It In Real Life

🧠 The OGDiabaddie Brain Dump

Why This Matters...

The real reason I've been quiet is that I spent years believing I needed to have everything under control before I showed up.

Key Takeaways
- Living with Type 1 diabetes requires patience, not perfection.
- Perfectionism and burnout are more common than many of us realize.
- We can only control what we can control and trust God with the rest.

Let's Peek Into Next Week

Check out our event on Saturday, Jun 20, 2026.

Check out our event on Sunday, Jun 21, 2026.

Click here for an update from Diabaddie!

Address

Tampa, FL

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+18135206819

Website

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