Surfer Chick, School Teacher, Suburban Mom of Three, and HIV+ #WorldAIDSDay
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Skateboarder, surfer chick, school teacher, suburban mom of three, popular YouTuber and… HIV+? Yup!
Meet social media influencer Jennifer Vaughan, who is living her best life with HIV and educating the world about what this chronic disease looks and feels like today. Jennifer is the latest guest on the ALLISON INTERVIEWS podcast, and for good reason. She has leveraged social media platforms YouTube and TikTok to emerge as a very popular, albeit, unlikely face of what HIV looks like in the 21st century.
Jennifer Vaughan is an HIV+ YouTube and social media personality, advocating for the latest in HIV education, eliminating stigma, and better access to healthcare for HIV+ people around the world. Her popular YouTube channel features in-depth content with story times about her own HIV/AIDS story (yes, she has recovered from a previous AIDS diagnosis). Jennifer’s YouTube and TikTok content has a combined 650 million+ views.
@jennifer.vaughanOne year of condomless sex (b4 we knew I had it) & he was negative. Female to male transmission is considered very low risk in the world of HIV. My viral load is now zero & the risk is also zero. Receptive partners r @ the highest risk. #uequalsu #undetectable #untransmittable
On interviewing Jennifer and other social media influencers with remarkable stories to tell, Allison Kugel shares, “I’ve recently wanted to expand outside my celebrity interview bubble to start sharing stories about everyday people making a huge impact in our world, whether it’s health advocacy, criminal justice reform, gender issues, or other relevant and timely topics.”
The following are excerpts from the latest episode of the Allison Interviews podcast with host and entertainment journalist, Allison Kugel, interviewing Jennifer Vaughan.
On getting diagnosed with HIV and AIDS on the same day:
“I was diagnosed in February of 2016, the day after Valentine’s Day. I had been very sick and didn’t know what was wrong with me. I had been in a relationship with somebody for a year, and I really thought I had a parasite in me from [surfing in] the ocean. I thought that had to be what it was. They took a lot of blood and I got the diagnosis within three hours. I tested positive for the [HIV] antibody. Of course, they had to ask me if I would be okay testing for HIV, and when they asked me that, it just went in one ear and out the other. I said, ‘Yes, of course. Test me for everything. I’m sick and I’m getting worse.’ At this point I had night sweats, I had fever, I had thrush in my mouth. I had actually had AIDS at that point, and didn’t even know it. You are already pretty sick and had to somehow mentally take this diagnosis in, when you are already physically ill. I didn’t even know what to do but just lay there and be numb.”
“An AIDS diagnosis means your CD4 count is under 200, and mine was 84, which means I was more susceptible to opportunistic infections. And I had a viral load of 507,000, which to me sounded like the most disgusting thing ever and I am vile. Oh my God. At the time I thought, ‘I’ve got this disgusting virus in me and I’m a mother of three. How am I a wholesome single mother anymore? That is gone. I’m disgusting. Obviously, I did something wrong to get this or else it would not be in me.’ Everything I knew about myself until that diagnosis was out the window. It was like I’m a new person. Now I’m going to have to go from the Jennifer Vaughan I used to be to this new person who has this HIV label.”
On going public with her status on YouTube:
“I just kept thinking, you know, I could do this. I could go on YouTube and I might find another woman out there, because I don’t know anyone else with HIV. It’s not like I’m going to have an aunt or a sister. This is not common. I’m a zebra, and so I’m thinking there has to be another woman out there that has this. Also, maybe there is one person I can prevent from going through what I went through, because they will be tested sooner and they won’t turn out with an AIDS diagnosis. I also wanted everyone to know you can get this diagnosis and live a totally normal life. The only way was to do a thirty-minute video because I needed a platform where I could talk for a while. I put that first video out, titled, My HIV/AIDS Story (700K views).”
“I’m not going to lie, I knew I would stand out because I’m a white woman. I definitely played that up, for sure. I had a picture of myself sick and healthy, side by side, and I put it out there, like, ‘This is my HIV/AIDS and I want you guys to all see what it looks like. I want you to see my face. I want you to understand I’m not afraid of this.’ That video put me on the map, and then I did My 16 HIV/AIDS Symptoms (2M views) only because I had so many messages coming in asking about my symptoms. It was nonstop on my comments from my first video.”
On why her doctor won’t endorse the U = U movement (undetectable = untransmittable):
“My doctor said, ‘You know, not everyone is responsible like you, and not everyone takes their medication like you.’ She deals with a lot of people who are homeless and drug addicts, and she said, ‘I don’t think it is responsible to share that information with patients, because they are not always compliant and then they could transmit it.’”
On Dr. Anthony Fauci and U=U:
“You know, Dr. Fauci, in 2018, I heard him speak and I heard him say, ‘We always knew back in the 1990s and the 1980s that as long as your [HIV] viral load would decrease, the chances of transmitting the virus also decreased. It just went hand in hand. We always knew that, but we needed the studies to support that theory, and they did. They 100% did.’ But it’s very hard for people who are HIV negative to trust that information. It’s scary. I don’t know that I would be like, ‘Yeah, let’s try this.’”
On non-compliant HIV patients who won’t take their medication because of stigma:
“Everyone with HIV should know this information about U=U (undetectable = sexually untransmittable). It keeps us compliant. It’s better for our health if we are taking our medication every day. Because this is now a manageable condition, you would think anyone who would have this would be like, ‘Of course I’m going to take my medication!’ But there are people that won’t, because there is still so much stigma. They see that pill and they are in denial. They don’t even want the medication in their house. God forbid somebody knew they were taking HIV medication.”
On her controversial decision to stay friends with the man who gave her HIV:
“It wasn’t intentional, and we are both going to be fine. We are going to live long lives. The most we can do is try to show that we can be light about it and jovial, and be friends; and we don’t have to have this negativity towards this virus. All that negativity, it just gives the virus more power.”
On working in the California public school system as a teacher and disclosing her HIV status:
“I’ve been working in education for thirteen years, and I’m actually an after-school supervisor at an elementary school, so I’m there about three or four days a week. I have a decent role there, I have HIV, and most people know it.”
“I think most people, the majority of people who are HIV positive do not share their diagnosis with anybody. I would say it is very rare for anybody to be sharing it with their employer, so I think my situation is unique, but I’ve had nothing but support. I work for different schools all the time. I bounce around because I substitute teach at different schools, so I can’t tell you exactly how many people know about it. It’s not like I go into the office and say, ‘Hi, I’m here for the kindergarten job, and oh, I have HIV, just so you know.’ But if people find me through Facebook, YouTube, or TikTok, they will know. I’ve worked at the school that I do the after-school program at, and all of my kids that have gone through that school, they know. The principal knows, and we never had a conversation about it.”
On bisexual HIV+ men scapegoating women as their transmitters:
“I think we are the scapegoat, and it pisses me off. I know it is controversial, but it really pisses me off because I think it is so much easier to blame it on a woman than really share what you are doing behind closed doors. I think there are a lot of heterosexual men that live bisexual lifestyles. I think it is super common and I don’t think it is talked about at all. There are a lot of men on the down low. It doesn’t mean they are gay. There is so much fluidity with sexuality. Men may want to try many different things that they want to do sexually, that a woman is not comfortable with, but they know they can do it with another man. There is no relationship they have to deal with. They just want the act done. I do believe, for sure, that there is a lot that woman do not understand about men and their sex drive.”
On being recently divorced and disclosing her HIV status on dating apps:
“I was in a very protective bubble for five years and I could see why people would be annoyed with me thinking she thinks this is so easy. She hasn’t had to deal with that disclosure. Part of me is like I am excited about being in this. this is so weird but I’m excited about being ghosted because now I get to see how it feels. I think living this experience is only going to help my advocacy.”
“I thought I would give men my name and they would look me up on Google and see all of this HIV advocacy and be like, ‘Wow! This is so cool, because she literally talks about it publicly, so there is obviously nothing to be afraid or ashamed of, otherwise she wouldn’t be doing it.’ That is what I was naively hoping would happen if I shared my HIV advocacy, and it didn’t work. Both of these men politely exited the conversation with a, “This is a lot and I’m not okay with this, and I really wish you well. Thank you for sharing that with me, but I’m going to politely bow out.’ I thought, ‘Oh, okay. Well, you didn’t even give it a chance.’ I responded with, ‘It’s really a shame that you felt attracted to me, and now that you have this information you’re going with stigma from the 80s.’”
*this episode includes some sexually explicit content and adult themes for educational purposes.
About Journalist and Podcast Host Allison Kugel
Allison Kugel is a veteran entertainment and pop culture journalist with more than three hundred long form celebrity, influencer, and newsmaker interviews published and syndicated, worldwide. She is author of the memoir, Journaling Fame: A memoir of a life unhinged and on the record, and host of the new podcast, Allison Interviews, where listeners can tune in to hear the full conversations behind Allison’s print interviews. Listen and embed the entire interview with Jennifer Vaughan @ Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify. Follow Allison Kugel on Instagram @theallisonkugel and at AllisonInterviews.com.
