The Best Type of Friend
What you need to know about your friend with Type 1 Diabetes
Written by Connie Carringer
Illustrated by Desiree Vargas
When Connie's daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes she looked for books geared toward young kids that her family could read together to help them all better understanding what was happening. It was disappointing to find only a few options. The idea of creating a beautiful book for kids explaining T1D started growing and finally in 2021 Connie started working on writing and laying out her vision.
Connie found a young artist through TikTok who's style fit perfectly with what Connie had imagined for the book - fun, vibrant, and sweet, just like Jane Marie herself! Desiree Vargas' illustrations truly bring Jane Marie's story to life.
Entirely self-published, Connie wrote the book, worked with Desiree on the drawings, and did the entire layout for the eBook and the full-color printed book. It was a big learning process and it isn't perfect, but ever bit of it was done with love.
The book helps explain the biology of diabetes in a way that even young kids can understand, but will also help their caregivers and friends understand too!
The book also works to bust common myths about T1D and answer a lot of the questions that kids (and adults) with T1D have to answer again and again.
The more the general population understands what T1D is all about, the more support and research can be done to treat and cure it!
The book also highlights the awesome network of support that T1D kids, adults and their families have created around the world.
T1D, like all chronic illnesses, is relentlessly difficult to live with, but the communities we have built are beautiful.