Chronically Jenni
An inspiration for others navigating the world with chronic illnesses
By Lisa Guthrie Deabill A model , performer , content creator and public speaker — those are just some of Jenni Pettican ’ s job titles . The young woman from the United Kingdom has already accomplished a lot despite suffering from chronic illnesses and invisible disabilities . In 2016 , Jenni was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome ( EDS ), postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome ( POTS ) and a cerebrospinal leak . To raise awareness of what she and so many others face each day , Jenni has added activist to her resume and created the Chronically Jenni vlog .
Tell us a little about yourself and what brought you to where you are today .
I ’ m Jenni and I am a content creator , model , performer and public speaker from the UK . I live with my partner and our pets , a 3-year-old African pygmy hedgehog called Honey and our 1-year-old double doodle pup , Coco . Whilst I was studying drama at university , I was diagnosed with a cocktail of chronic illnesses which led me to start a vlog to share my experiences and found a whole community of others like me . So , I kept sharing and that evolved into the job and experiences I ’ ve had today sharing viral videos , educating businesses about disability and going down the runway at London Fashion Week .
You have done so much to raise awareness of chronic illness . How did you first become an activist ? What has inspired you to open up about your own struggles and start the Chronically Jenni blog ?
I actually started my blog when I was changing my diet due to intolerances as a way to share my recipes and there ’ s still a little recipe corner on there today . But I first started sharing my experiences after getting my diagnoses whilst I was off at university and having surgeries . At first , it was just a way of sharing what was going on with people in my life because I ’ d left uni very quietly and kind of disappeared off the face of the earth . I went up to uni to visit my housemates and my friend Becky said to me you ’ d be really good at vlogging , maybe you should start one whilst you ’ re off and so I did . It gave me
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