California

Hi, my name is Rory and I’m in middle school. Hola, me llamo Rory y yo hablo español. I went to dual immersion school, so I speak a lot of Spanish if that’s helpful for anyone. I love, shopping, art, anime, Harry Potter, music, dancing and theater. I was diagnosed with scoliosis when I turned 11. At first, I was excited to get a back brace. I chose a pretty pattern and didn’t want to cover it up. Little did I know that my brace was a big deal, and a life changer. It felt very, VERY weird to put it on, and my first one had straps in the back that were hard to reach. Thankfully my best friend gladly helped me with it and that was how I got through the first school year. Now, I have had 2 more braces because I grew so fast last year. I liked them better with the straps in the front, but it was really hard being the only one with a brace at my school. Kids would come up and ask about it a lot. I couldn’t wear certain things like jeans comfortably, and it was hard to always have to shop for brace friendly shirts. Sometimes it felt really uncomfortable, and I just wanted to take it off.

I went with my mom to get new X-rays after I got my third brace, and they determined that even though I was wearing my brace 18 hours a day, my curve kept growing larger with each growth spurt. I grew almost 4” in one year. A few weeks later my parents set up a video call with my spinal doctor to talk about my curve progression. He was very nice and supportive, and we made plans for spinal fusion surgery. I’m actually feeling pretty excited about it, and I look forward to sharing my experience when it’s done.

Being a Curvy Girls Leader means a lot to me. I didn’t discover Curvy Girls right away, so for most of my time bracing I had no one else to talk to who was going through the same thing. My mom found some online zooms with other kids, which was nice, but I really wanted to find some other local girls I could talk to. I want to help someone get through what I had to go through. I’ve sometimes been very upset about my back brace and back pain, and I know there are hundreds of girls who probably feel the same. I won’t ever be judgmental. I just want to listen so we can be there and support each other through it all.