My HIV Story: Being diagnosed 

In 2005 when I was 17 there was a nasty rumor spread about me that people were saying I had HIV+ throughout Saint Augustine, Florida. That spread into my hometown Green Cove Springs, Orange Park, Middleburg, and even Jacksonville Florida (a city with 1 million people). There were bulletins posted on MySpace about me and just like that... my life was ruined. I was fired from my job. I eventually left Florida in 2016. Guess what? I didn't have HIV... I'm HIV negative. I've never had the virus. That 'witchhunt' taught me a lot, it taught me how to prevent myself from contracting the virus and it also taught me how silly the stigma was/is. I'm apart of the HIV community without being HIV positive because I faced the stigma associated with HIV. Shame on those people that spread those rumors and shame of them for stigmatizing the disease. At this point, I am 35 and still HIV negative. And I am so glad there's the 1 pill per day for those infected, and now the vaccine is working, and more and more advancements are happening. Undetectable is a blessing for this virus and life is to be lived. I hope that within my lifetime we see the cure. Keep speaking up and speaking out Ellie! Hello from Kansas City, Missouri.

Wow this story is basically exactly how I'm feeling...I received a positive test 24hrs ago, I've been detached from reality and finding solice in stories like yours

Your incredibly brave to make public your story of hiv Ellie xxx

What a strong,honest,beautiful person you are Elle. I think you will get through this and people will love you for you ❤

I know people always say things like 'you are so brave' at this moment. The fact is it is true. To be so young and to stand-up to help change bias from people who do not know enough is brave and thank you for your story.

Awesome video. I don’t know how it’s not viral. You are a fantastic speaker and a great role model!!! Cheers to you and everything you accomplish in your future.

I don't even know who I landed on this video while randomly watching YT videos you are lovely lady and you did a really good job in telling this story. It was interesting to listen to. I could imagine the heavy duty shock of it all when you kept asking for a retest. You got past that time so well and have a really good vibe in this video. It's nice that they now have drugs these days that make this pretty much of a non issue.

Thank you for sharing your story. It’s really important because in this day and age we don’t hear much about HIV anymore. It seems HIV awareness has gone by the wayside. Thanks again. ❤

Keep on living and enjoy your life. You rock Ellie.

You are awesome! Your story will change lives. Thank you, Ellie!

Loved hearing your story , really positive and inspiring and hopefully encourages others to check themselves and not feel alone or desperate with fear, nice one, keep well ❤❤

I am glad you are healing and spreading the message

Thanks for your videos. Elllie! You are an incredibly brave woman ❤ I was last tested a few years ago and it was negative but I will make a pledge to get tested again very soon, for everything. I like the idea of being always on top of my status. Thank you love!

I have watched this a few times, I really love the honesty, openness of your journey living with HIV.

You are a strong young woman and feisty, i love it.❤ Thank you for sharing your story and God bless.

Lol your dad is soo funny that would’ve made me laugh to tears 😂❤ you’re brave for speaking up. Wish u the best 🖤

you are so inspiring!! sending you love xx

Very brave and beautiful young lady. Well done for telling your story. ❤

Whoever betrayed you needs to serve penance, thank you for helping others

OMG THAT TATTOO IS INCREDIBLE! ❤

I Love your videos. Hope to see more of them. Sending love from South Africa. ❤

Hey Ellie, I just saw your interview in the BBC documentary. I think you spoke extremely well, very well said. You were awesome and amazing. Sending you very best wishes and happiness. daniel X

Stay positive, Ellie. I feel that with AI, we’re finally gonna conquer this virus. And none of us will be reliant on the magic pill any longer. ❤️

I pray that you will start a healing process,wonderful parents

God bless you so much! This is so sad and scary ❤ but you will be ok x

Such an inspiration, Ellie.

Great video!!! Former RN here who worked during the 80s crisis. So much great research has now been done and the doctors know so much more about the disease than decades ago. Thank you for sharing your story of diagnosis and living! Do you know how or who transmitted the disease to you? If so, have you talked to them?

Beautiful Ellie❤

Well done Ellie for being so brave. HIV could happen to anyone who has sex, so why the stigma? Im twice you age and i can remember so well the fear of AIDS back then. So glad that HIV is so easily treated now.

What a beautiful story coming from a beautiful person

Its good to know whatever travails we have, "Spoons" will be there

Legend, thanks for choosing to share and making world better place :)

Sending Love Vibes ...You're a Survivor Girl ...XX

Thank you. I was just diagnosed today. Though my test was reactive last week, I’ve gone through a lot in the past few days. I know I’ll live and be okay, but the shame is hard to get around. Like you I hope to be positive :)

The tattoo!! love it!

Ellie u are brave hiv is no longer a death sentence

Ellie, you are incredible 💗

Thanks for this video. I’m glad you have fabulous family and friends. Plz feel free to make more vids

Omg the Tattoo. I love this so much. Your the legend

Bigup Ellie you are one of the kind. I love you surely. What we can do u did. Hope we can get intouch

I love what you're doing! You're doing so much good 🎉❤

I’m having a mental breakdown… I feel like talking with you would make me feel so much better

You're a blessing.

Ellie, thank you so much for sharing your diagnosis! You are inspirational. I'm newly diagnosed and still processing it. What's helped me with the process is having a relationship with Jesus Christ! Jesus loves you and wants to know you. God bless you ❤!

You are beautyful thank you so much for sharing your story ❤

Thank you for your story. When I watch these videos. I watch to hear about the lead up to it. It will be nice to know what made you get checked out (symptoms you were having), how you contracted it etc as opposed to only the aftermath of dealing with it.

Thank you for sharing your story ❤

My beautiful Ellie I love you.May God bless you.

Hi Ellie How are you ? Is not the best news of the word but you have to live with it, now the medication is ok, no side effects,take the pill, do sport, eat ealthy and everything will be fine we are many you are not alone,......Thanks for sharing it.

I’m so glad you’re able to stay positive with this diagnosis and get the treatment you need and that it works for you.. However, the magic pill does not work for everyone so I really wish people would stop telling people that HIV is manageable. It makes a lot of young people think they can still live a wild life. Some can’t handle the treatment and some are resistant. 🙏🏼

I love this!

Can you tell when u contract it and when u got tested positive i mean time in between and any symtoms you exprienced during this time ?

THIS was great. I want to be an HIV activist as well as a HIV researcher. I truly believe there will be a cure in the near future!

You are so brave God bless you ❤

Hi when did you take the test after exposure?

Your positivity is admirable and uplifting to say the very least. I don’t think that their compassion for you was coming from a negative place though. It was ignorance; not denial of you doing well. The love and care from your community is beautiful and I’m sure that everyone going through this wishes they had a community as strong and loving as yours. The judgement and stigma is towards the disease; not the person. If they’re only stigmatizing the disease, they must be very receptive to the education you’ve provided about the condition. Lastly, I have worked on the pharmaceutical side of the healthcare system. These “magic pills” (anti-retrovirals) undoubtedly life saving, however, they are very harsh on the body. I’m not sure if you have been notified of the long term side effects of them, but I do want you be mindful of the physical (i.e. wasting) and mental (i.e. permanent cognitive impairment) that the vast majority of people taking this form of medication long term/life long. It is a stark reality, but reality nonetheless. We need awareness on all fronts of this condition, so that people are educated thoroughly. Not everyone will be accepting, however, honesty about the condition and medicine for it is needed. People can now live a long and prosperous with HIV, but it does come with a few downsides. Then again, life has downsides for us without HIV too; taking anti-retrovirals just makes your a bit more predictable (which isn’t that bad if you think about it, because at least you’d have time to prepare for it unlike the rest of us). This comment isn’t made with hate whatsoever. I just wanted to add some honest information about the medication. There’s nothing magical about a lot of medications, and we are to best avoid situations that would lead us to taking them. That’s where education such that you have provided regarding methods of transmission comes in! 😊 I wish you all the best! ❤

There’s a song called digging your scene by the blow monkeys that was written during the AIDS crisis in the mid 1980s back then it’s like death sentence but people still die because of it in many countries and at lower rates in Europe

You have great energy ❤

You are very pretty and sweet. Please make more videos. It will truly give courage to us.

So, I tested positive for HIV at a plasma center but when I went too hospital they told me that I tested NEGATIVE for everything. I am now waiting for a 3rd opinion from my primary care doctor and I’d be lying if I said I am not nervous but I have faith that I’ll test negative because I’ve always been on top of my status and no I don’t sleep around. I mean from like February too March or April I was sexually active with my ex girlfriend and yes it was unprotected and even still I went to get checked out and my results was good then before she left to go back home for the spring semester. I am asking for y’all prayers.

Wooow Thank you for this story

God bless you with more prosperity ellie...I recently heard that Israel scientists have discovered vaccine for hiv.which was in early stage ,it will take another 3-5 years for full fledged vaccine....

Have a great life Your a nice person

I’m from india and It’s been a year I had an unsafe sex with a girl that I just met first time. After getting into that activity, I came to know about HIV AIDS. I was very scared. I tested myself at the 43rd day and It came negative. I was happy but after some days. I was again tensed because I was going through HIV phobia. I think, many of us are just scared of HIV phobia. I got a job in a city and I didn’t get into physical with any girl. After a year, It just stuck that I might a HIV positive. What will happen with my life? What would be my parents reaction? These things have just fucked my mind. So, I decided to get tested. I went to the clinic with covered face and I asked for the tridot test. I was very scared untill the test came. “ I WAS HIV NEGATIVE “ . They showed me my test kit. I was very happy that day. So, Don’t get confused or scared unless your test came positive and one more thing “A POSITIVE LIFE MEANS NEGATIVE IN HIV”.

I have caught it during my trip to kazakstan. I was mọlested by an older guy 😢

Jesus adores you regardless of any labels or titles you have been given ❤

The New Years' party was especially great this time, spent it with my best friend and some of her colleagues, went to a club around midnight and when the first moment of the new year has come, we hugged and cried in relief and joy that this awful, horrible year has finally ended. And just 2 days ago, I had to go to the doctor's office after a strange call. Got my positive diagnosis. When my friends told me to start the year positively, I'm pretty sure this isn't what they meant. I'm still mindblown, bamboozled, flabbergasted by the fact that 2023 still managed to fck me up with a last punch to the gut, lol Humor is my defense mechanism, I would be totally broken and in disbelief if I couldn't make jokes about my situation. And it isn't for a lack of empathy or understanding, but for the knowledge that this virus is treatable and effectively taking the right meds means you can't transmit it and won't ever have any health problems because of it. The most destructive aspect of the virus is actually the stigma, I'd say. People are ignorant. If someone decides to disappear from my life because of it, I consider it the trash taking itself out. Good riddance. All those years of working on self-awareness is really paying off even now. If this happened 2-3 years ago, I wouldn't have been so calm and put together. Remember! Anything that helps you cope without hurting you or others is a valid way to deal with such tough situations. We are humans, adaptation is the quality that got us to the top of the food chain.

Je suis désolé pour vous ma belle je vous souhaite beaucoup de courage.

Thank you for being you. Sending a virtual cup of tea and choccy biccy. ❤❤❤

We all got stigmas about something, if ur depressed people feel sorry for u or dont talk to u because ur a negative person for them, in my case im addicted to Xanax and i cant tell anyone bcs everybody would think i'm a junkie.

Sending you love

Love ❤️ u Ellie

Your dad is crazy as hell for that joke 😂😂😂

Hi hunneee, Thanks for being informative. I love your + tattoo. How do you find dates? It's been so hard to date where I am in the US

Prayers

❤Ellie

you have great parents. i love mine dearly but there reaction would be so different. its clear why you turned out the way you did! i mean that good..haha incase it sounded otherwise.

How did the conversation go with the guy that gave it to you??? This is crazy, at age 25 gheese. So sorry your going through this

You are so beautiful ❤

Thank you

I’m an RN non judgmental I feel your pain. Obviously there has been some ❤️‍🩹 now, sending you my love

Are you able to do an interview on my podcast to raise awareness your beauty and light and courage inspires me greatly.

You're beautiful ❤😊❤

Dear Ellie. Pl help to find a same states girl for realmarriage for my son he is btech on lineworking age 35 we from India Thanks waiting your reply

Hi Ellie, I am really worried about getting tested. Is there a way I can message you? I need to talk to someone!

What can I do to help raise awareness and help people with HIV?

Your solid bell ❤

I am - and I never want to be + ;so with this said it is very difficult for us as a - to not be shit crazy about the fact that it's centimeters away from becoming a +. The middle finger makes me think she is Positive with HIV - not stay positive, but that she is POSITIVE with HIV and it's the middle F u finger also [sex]. Stay positive Ellie in this world because that is the only way to THRIVE. it's tough to be positive with these diseases around.

Thanks 🙏 for i HIV positive and good health care safe journey

In a way I sort of relate two people who have been diagnosed with HIV even though I don't have HIV I was diagnosed with pernicious anemia which means that I have to get a shot once every two weeks if I don't take shots I will go into a coma and die I felt like I had done something wrong or being punished for something that I've never asked for. Whatever it may be taking shots or pills for the rest of your life is not the end of the world.

You are sivh a sweetheart❤

I want a wife. I am HIV positive. Who can help me?

You are really beautiful..love from india ❤

Dont fear death it is death that fears Christ Jesus.❤️‍🔥

Its July 2023. How are things now?

You are a brave girl god bless you

Hi Im also positive My main question is Can I ever get marry a girl with negetive HIV and have a baby?

This makes me feel better about yhe steps inusually take. Im almost 30 with no kids and i LOVE CONDOMS.yes i knoe they can break and stuff but k use them to be as safe as i can and also yo lrevent pregnancy. Its funny how many people will tell me its nuts thats i still use condoms even when im dating a man for several years. Idk why yheres such a stigma against being safe. I really wish there wasnt. While there are medications to managae most sti's i feel like whats wrong eith being extra cautious 🤷 were still having sex and enjoying it lol id like thay stigma to go away that safe sex is boring. I alway say to my partnera its not just for me, its for you too! ❤️

U are soon pretty absolutely gorgeous

What do you think infected you with the virus?