One thing that remained a challenge, though, was dating with a disability.
It was a big adjustment going from being healthy to chronically ill, but over time, as I learned to focus on the other things in my life and manage my symptoms very well, it got easier.
I live with severe chronic pain and eat through a feeding tube, but my disability is largely invisible. At 29, I've had over 40 surgeries to treat more than six medical conditions that affect every part of my body, including lupus and dysautonomia. I've been disabled since I was 14, when I developed a chronic illness. The essay has been edited for length and clarity. This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with Jacqueline Child, a cofounder of Dateability, a dating app for disabled people. She says the app has given her purpose and helped her feel more confident in herself.
In 2021, she and her sister Alexa, 33, cofounded a dating app for people with disabilities. Jacqueline Child, 29, had bad experiences on dating apps for years because of her disabilities. Jacqueline Child in Italy this year and at a hospital in Colorado in 2011.