I'm Franee and I am a professional, internationally published model who also works a full-time job, farms chickens, tends to her gardens, cat, and lives an typical everyday life with friends, a family, and a house. The only addition to my life you can't see is I have type-one diabetes. So that means my days also include 4-6 finger pricks, 1-5 insulin shots, carb counting each meal, math for carb to insulin ratios, and experiencing high and low blood sugars. You've felt high and low blood sugars yourself before however they are controlled quickly. These bursts of feeling sleepy after a big meal are sugar highs or fatigued and shakey after a lot of activity are sugar lows. With the help of your pancreas working hard, it is able to combat the worse of these feelings. Imagine how you would feel if you were a battery, drained little by little to the remainder and eventually and thankfully recharged. It feels very much like this for me. Sometimes my highs and lows are so strong that I can feel the life leaving and refueling my body. Scary, yes. But It's actually kinda a blessing in a way-- to feel these feelings as a reminder that I'm alive. I'm always relived to reach my happy sugar level which is anywhere from 70-130. People often ask "but how, you're so tiny" when disclosing I have type 1 diabetes. They associate diabetes with being overweight. This is one factor of what type two diabetes consists of and they are only contributing to the convo on what they know of the disease. I'm always happy to educate them further on the differences. Type 1 diabetes is is also known as insulin-dependent diabetes. It used to be called juvenile-onset diabetes, because it often begins in childhood. For me, I got diagnosed only 3 years ago, at age 25. So it is still very new considering. It is an autoimmune condition. It's caused by the body attacking its own pancreas with antibodies. With type 1, the damaged pancreas doesn't make insulin so you have to act as the pancreas daily. It is essentially dead. "He assured me that it was one photo that I should have to look back at one day and it was totally my call if I ever wanted to share it with the public eye..."

When I eat a meal I calculate how many carbs are in the dish and then based on my carb ratio I take a number of units of insulin before the meal. My team of 7 doctors and I work together to figure that out and it is often changing. I inject said units into my sides, legs, butt and tummy areas 1-5 times daily. Just recently once I started modeling did I start showing off my cgm (continuous glucose monitor) for the world to see that I have diabetes. This device is the one you see on my side, in which I relocate to new places every 10 days. It constantly tells me a ballpark of my sugar level connecting to a hand held device and informs me of any trends of it going up or down but also alerts me when to take notice. Truly, it's a life saver as I don't always feel my highs and lows especially at night when sleeping. The photographer who took these beautiful photos, Jerome (@jstyle59 ) and I were shooting our third shoot and he encouraged me to do just one pose with my cgm. He's seen it before and photographed it but always promised to remove it for my sake. I was apprehensive. When I first got diagnosed I was so ashamed of having this disease and hid it. I'd never do any finger pricks or injections in front of anyone. Everything was done always behind closed doors in fears that I'd make them feel disgusted and uncomfortable. I'd hide my sensor (cgm) because no one could possibly want a model with that on her side. I didn't want a weakness or for anyone to know I had one. I've worked so hard for everything in life and this could slow me down. Or so I thought. Really, having type 1 is a strength and I couldn't be a better candidate. Being just on year 3 I'm told I've accepted and conquered way more than the typical diagnosed person. I'm a role model. I've never felt more educated, supported, admired, proud and grateful for my health. I now educate others and offer support on those still unaccepting to the disease. Not everyday is a good easy day, but it could definitely be worse and it certainly has taught me to be appreciative and to really live in the moment!