Intro - Connie Rose

Hey there folks,

My name is Connie Rose and I was living in Indiana during the time I found out I was positive -  in a small farming community snug in the hip of the bible belt. I was only 21 years old with a 10-month old baby girl that I had unknowingly breastfed while being HIV-Positive. She is, by the grace of god, HIV-Negative. I lived the first 17 years of my “HIV life” alone, with only the people around me being allowed to talk about me and my story of HIV. I was treated very poorly and that is why when I moved away to a place where no one could physically, mentally, or emotionally ever touch me or hurt me again with their ignorance, I began my own journey of telling MY story of life after HIV. Because there is life after HIV. It is not the end of the world, it is only the beginning of a new lifestyle.

I currently own the website livingpos.com. It is an information and blogging site dedicated to all four incurable Hs in the STD/STI community: HIV, HSV 1&2, HPV, HCV. Yes, I am aware of the cure for Hepatitis C, but we must remember those that the cure has not worked for yet. We must remember those that are still being diagnosed or reinfected. They need a place to voice their day-to-day living with H and I hope to be that resource for them.

I am now in my 40s. I am a grandmother to the most perfect little man in the world and I am living out West as a blogger and online media content creator, as an HIV/AIDS activist who’s changing the world one blog at a time.

Why Connie wants to be part of A Girl Like Me: I want to blog for A Girl Like Me because it is the most encouraging combined force of powerful women speaking out and showing bravery -  sometimes in the face of unimaginable fear - that I have ever seen in my life. Reading the stories from The Well Project over the last couple of years has empowered me privately in my own life and advocacy and I want to do that for others. Thank you to all the sisters before me that helped grow this valuable resource into what it is today and I hope to add my voice to it and help take the volume up a notch on our war cry. Always remember you are #warriorstrong.

Love you much,

Connie Rose