Sugar Linings

Sierra Sandison, Miss Idaho 2014, is best known for launching the #showmeyourpump campaign and proudly wearing her insulin pump on the Miss America stage. Sierra now travels the country, speaking at schools, diabetes conferences, and keynoting at various events. She tells audiences of her journey from diagnosis to the Miss America stage, and spreads her message of overcoming adversity, as well as loving the things that make us unique, rather than hiding the things that make us different. Now, with the launch of her new book, Sugar Linings: Finding the Bright Side of Type 1 Diabetes, she hopes to send a new message: one of hope and positivity for diabetics and non-diabetics alike. She tells her story, and also discusses the positive sides of living with type 1 diabetes: finding strength, making connections, and sometimes even forming priceless friendships with others facing similar challenges. She discusses how diabetes can help one discover his or her passion and a way to make a different in the world, develop a greater ability to show compassion and empathy, and other sugar linings that can make each of our journeys with diabetes a little less gloomy. By illustrating the sugar linings that can hold true for anyone--not just the ones unique to becoming Miss Idaho--Sierra aims to bring hope to those who may be facing a new diagnosis, and anyone else who may have a cloud casting an uncertain, but daunting forecast for his or her future.