From Hiding to Healing: My Journey with Juvenile Arthritis

As part of our Letters to the World initiative, we share lived experiences from young people living with chronic skin and joint conditions. These letters are personal reflections. They are honest, unfiltered, and grounded in real experience. In our first letter of the series, Sanni shares her journey growing up with juvenile arthritis — from hiding her condition and pushing beyond her limits to finding acceptance, community, and strength.

Sanni (Finland)

3/18/20261 min read

My journey with JIA

As a child, I struggled to understand how I could be sick if I looked completely healthy. Sometime during elementary school, I began to realize that I couldn’t quite do the same things as my classmates. I had to use assistive devices like supportive insoles and wrist braces. In PE class, I wasn’t allowed to participate in every activity. I had to miss school because of rehabilitation periods, doctor’s appointments, and physiotherapy sessions. Little by little, my confusion turned into shame. I was deeply embarrassed that I couldn’t keep up with the others, and whenever my condition allowed it, I pushed myself to catch up with them—especially in things like skills in sports.

I learned to hide my illness and to perform at least as well as everyone else. When I reached my twenties, it all backfired and I burned out completely. My mind and body could no longer handle constantly pushing past my limits, and I had to learn—painfully—to accept the restrictions arthritis imposes.

Fortunately, nowadays I am able to live with the arthritis, go to work, and participate in advocacy groups such as YASJC. If I could go back in time now, I would tell my younger self: believe me, you’re perfectly fine just the way you are, even if you have juvenile arthrithis. And that someday you’ll find other people who are young and living with illness too, and those people will bring so much joy and warmth into your life. <3

- Sanni (Finland)

Living with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA)

Letters to the World is a space for lived experience.

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