Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaliyah Wallace
Hi Aaliyah, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Hi I’m Aaliyah Wallace, and I was diagnosed with Scoliosis at the age of 9 years old. I wore a brace 22 hours a day for 7 years. My passion has been to help others who may need help financially to receive treatment. FCCLA has given me a platform to raise awareness as wells as use my voice and experience to get the information out there. After presenting last year I realized the impact my journey had and how lucky I was to have the financial support to treat my scoliosis. This made me wonder about patients that don’t have insurance or the financial needs to seek treatment. This lead me to my new project the Outreach. I am sharing my story and encouraging others to reach out and help those who can’t afford treatment. As of this year my final project was called My Testimony where I partnered with Jordan Burk of Kelly and Kelso he write books about kids with disabilities and we have partnered to create a character with scoliosis. To raise funds for the book I hosted a scoliosis blockparty in my town and show that it is ok to be different. Having scoliosis does not define me and it doesn’t define others that have it. It has in fact motivated me to become an orthopedic surgeon when I get older so I can help find new technologies for scoliosis.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Through my Journey with scoliosis it has not been an easy road. The physical and mental damage scoliosis can cause really affected me! But over time I have come to embrace it ! I was once a scared nine year old girl who didn’t want people to know I had scoliosis. I even tried to cover the brace with baggy clothes during my sophomore year I was told I needed full spinal surgery and that really put a shock on my whole family. By the grace of God the curve went down and I no longer needed the surgery and have learned to embrace my disability and make a difference.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
As of right now I currently work at the nursing home and just enrolled at Texas Tech for my degree in medicine. I am most proud of embracing my differences and making them my strength and using my voice to create change in this big world.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Growing up I was a little quiet but I was always full of laughter and wanting to make people smile. One of my favorite things even till this day was reading I enjoyed the knowledge I gained and of course I always found comfort in sports as well!
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