The Same Bottle

October 7, 2026

I’m twenty-three years old; I’ve lived with HIV since the day I was born. I have never said those words out loud to a friend, only my family knows. I carry it everywhere like a stone in my shoe, and I’ve walked on it so long that nobody notices the limp.

My dad died when I was two. I don’t remember his face, only a photo of him laughing, and the picture didn’t even show what made him laugh. My mum died when I was eight, and that’s the year I found out why I had been [read more]

My Love Life Has a Third Wheel

October 7, 2026

The first thing I do every morning is check the clock. It’s always 6:17 AM.

My body wakes itself up 17 minutes before the alarm, a Pavlovian response to 27 years of medication. The second thing I do is count the pills: three white ones, one blue, two yellow.

I never had that big moment. You know that sit-down where somebody explains life to you. My HIV was just always there like the color of my skin or the fact that I’m left-handed. My mom got it from my dad. He got it [read more]

It Took Me a Decade to Say “I’m Not Ashamed” and Mean It

By Faida Niyo

September 18, 2026

For most of my thirties, I slept on one half of the bed, even when there was no one else in it. I kept my whole body folded into that narrow strip against the wall, night after night, like I hadn’t earned the right to take up the rest of the space. I did that for ten years, before I understood I was training myself not to be touched.

Long before I knew I was positive, I [read more]

Love After the Conversation Nobody Wants to HaveLove After the Conversation Nobody Wants to Have

By Brianna Jean 

September 1, 2026

The third date always feels like a tightrope walk between who you are and who they think you are. On that particular night, I could feel the wire trembling beneath my feet at the little restaurant. He’d chosen this particular place because the lighting made people look mysterious and approachable at the same time. We’d moved past the awkward first date interrogation and the slightly less [read more]

Manufactured Fear: How History Taught Us to Shame Sexual Health 

By Brielle Collins 

August 26, 2026

Sexual Health stigma did not come from nowhere. It is not an innate human reaction, but a learned behavior. We were taught to feel shame over centuries of conditioning that made medical conditions feel like individual moral failures. And that fear has been weaponized and continuously used to police marginalized communities.  

Long before modern medicine, societies have [read more]

Getting the Diagnosis Support You Need

By Brielle Collins  

August 25, 2026

When someone walks into a doctor’s office and gets tested, the last thing they want is the dreaded phone call. We all know the rule: no news is good news, and a ringing phone usually means there is a positive diagnosis to discuss. But while receiving that news is isolating, navigating the aftermath shouldn’t have to be. As a community, we need to make it a priority to show up for each other during these moments. However, comforting someone [read more]

Overcoming Medical Mistrust and Becoming Your Own Advocate 

By Brielle Collins

August 24, 2026

Growing up, I hated having to visit the doctor when I was sick. I felt like my pain was frequently ignored and my concerns were never taken seriously, even at a young age. This mistrust and anxiety felt by many, especially within the Black community, isn’t an irrational fear but one backed by a history of historical injustices in medicine. 

Over the course of the 17th and 18th centuries, American physicians worked on a basis of racial inferiority that saw Black Americans as subhumans who [read more]

Why Asking for Help Is a Sign of Strength: Lessons from HIV Advocacy and Community Building

By Monroe Russell

August 6, 2026

As college students, we’re often expected to have everything under control.

Wake up. Go to class. Join organizations. Maintain friendships. Think about internships. Plan for the future. Repeat.

Somewhere along the way, many of us start believing that asking for help means we’re falling behind. I know I’ve felt that pressure.

[read more]

“You Knew Better”— But Who Taught Me?

By Ta’Ajha Reyes

August 6, 2026

Growing up, I understood one thing about sex: I was not supposed to have it.

I heard warnings like “don’t get pregnant,” “don’t be fast,” and “tell me if somebody touches you.” What I did not receive were honest conversations about consent, healthy relationships,

STIs, contraception, or what it actually meant to be ready. I knew sex was something that could [read more]

More Than Just a Number: Why Our Sexual Health Is Deeply Interconnected 

By Brielle Collins

June 16, 2026

Have you ever heard anyone say, “When you sleep with someone, you sleep with everyone they’ve slept with?” It’s an old phrase used to teach the dangers of sleeping with multiple partners, but what exactly does it mean?  

It’s the idea that when you sleep with someone, you increase your [read more]