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cont'd...
Everyone did know. In that crowded hotel hallway, Johnson, then 23, had to face her greatest fear: Exposure. The first five years after having been diagnosed with Type I diabetes, she had lived life wearing a mask, afraid of what others would think. That night of the Miss Virginia 1997 competition changed everything.
"It’s more destructive to live life with a mask on," says Johnson, who is a student in Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH). "I had to come to terms with my own fears. I reached a point where my life had to be real and authentic, not a show. For five years I took medication, but I just kept it mostly private. I lived with embarrassment. After that episode, I could no longer hide. I am proud to be the person God made me to be."
The Baker family with the new Miss America 2005 - Deidre Downs |
Hours after the scare, she returned undaunted to the competition and placed in the top 10. The next year, she was crowned Miss Virginia, giving her a shot at winning the Miss America competition. She did win, netting the college scholarship money she sought during her six years in the pageant system.
It was the episode at the 1997 Miss Virginia pageant, though, that made her take her diabetes more seriously. Out of the closet came her insulin pump, the one she had stuffed away, because it looked too bulky around her waist. She started testing her blood glucose levels more often, with all the fingertip pricking that goes with it, six to eight times a day. And she eventually went public about the disease that she shares with 171 million people worldwide, a figure expected to more than double by 2030, according to the World Health Organization. |
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