Jennifer Vaughan -HIV+ Mother of 3

POZ I AM Radio

I'm a 47 year old single mother of 3 kids (17, 14 and 10). I've been working as a substitute teacher for 10 years and take jobs for any subject and any grade (kinder through senior year). In the last 18 months, I have been taking many jobs with the special needs kids and find these to be my most rewarding of days. In my free time, I'm an avid skater (skateboarding), surfer and now HIV Advocate/Activist. On 2/15/16, I was diagnosed with HIV, about a week later, I was told I had AIDS. My life changed in a split second. I decided to share my diagnosis with my Facebook family as many knew I had been very sick. It was met with immense support. During the next 5 months, I struggled with not knowing one other soul with HIV. The support I received from my Facebook announcement along with this need to connect with another woman like myself, gave me the courage to make my first YouTube video in August of 2016. I told my story to let people know that HIV could reach anyone, that you could lead a normal life with the virus today and I hoped to find some connections along the way. Boy did I! My video went viral (lol, that has always been a funny joke). Within months, I had almost 1000 subscribers, tons of new connections and a new voice I never imagined in the world of HIV. Today, I run a private page through Facebook for HIV+ women. I started it a year ago with roughly 15 women and we are 94 strong today. I blog for The Well Project's, A Girl Like Me website. I attended USCA in September of 2017 and began my U=U activism