Hi, everyone. My name is Shay Rudolph.
You may know me as Stacey McGill on The Baby-Sitters Club.
In Season 1 of the show,
viewers find out that Stacey has diabetes,
and in Season 2, we see her learning how to manage it
and becoming a Youth Ambassador for JDRF,
the leading global charity supporting Type 1 Diabetes research.
Their mission is to find a cure for T1D,
to find better treatments
so people can live their best life while managing the disease,
and also advocating for the T1D community.
November is National Diabetes Awareness Month
in the US and Canada,
so today I’ll be chatting with actress Mary Mouser
and JDRF Youth Ambassador Gia Butler
to learn more about diabetes and how it affects young people.
Joining me now is Mary Mouser,
an actress who plays Samantha LaRusso
on the Netflix series Cobra Kai.
In 2009, Mary was diagnosed with T1D.
Thank you so much for being here, Mary.
Thanks for having me. I’m excited to talk about it.
Me, too.
I’d love to introduce our other wonderful guest joining us today,
Gia Butler.
Gia was diagnosed with T1D 2 years ago.
Thank you for being here, too, Gia.
Thank you for having me.
Okay, so, to get right into it,
my first question is for you, Gia.
I’ve heard that you’re a big fan of The Baby-Sitters Club.
So, as a kid with Type 1 Diabetes,
what’s it like for you to watch Stacey
dealing with her diabetes in the show?
It was so cool watching her be more aware of
watching what she eats and managing her blood sugar.
It has encouraged me watching what I eat
and managing my own blood sugar.
That makes me so happy to hear.
I know that Stacey is a really big role model
for a lot of people so I’m glad she can help you in that way, too.
Gia, congratulations on being a JDRF Youth Ambassador!
In The Baby-Sitters Club,
Stacey also becomes a JDRF Youth Ambassador herself.
So, what’s it like being an ambassador in real life?
And what’s been the best part for you?
The best part is, I am finally getting to meet people like me.
I like being an ambassador because
I’m able to share my life with people
and help them with their fear by showing them
how I deal with stuff.
That’s amazing.
How long have you been an ambassador for?
One year, I think, now.
That’s so fun. Do you want to be for a while?
Yeah.
So, Mary, it’s been over 10 years
since you were first diagnosed.
Can you talk to me about what it was like
when you first discovered you had it versus now.
I think I was pretty overwhelmed when I was first diagnosed
and it was actually kind of scary.
I didn’t really know what it would mean for my future.
So, I think initially
I think I just really threw myself into learning about diabetes,
and I wanted to ask a million questions
and talk to people who had it,
and talk to people whose kids had it,
or family, friends had it, or whatever.
I was constantly, like, drinking in information.
As I’ve gotten more and more comfortable with it,
gotten to know my body more.
Now I would say, like,
you know, my diabetes is something that,
obviously it’s on my mind, like,
all the time.
But at the same time, it’s like,
I can now dedicate more parts of my brain to other things
because I know my diabetes, and I’m so comfortable with it.
And now it’s something I really love talking about
and talking to other people about.
Because I think it’s a lot less scary
the more information you have
and the more that you can share that with people.
And I think that’s something really awesome
about your portrayal on the show is,
I’m so excited that, that gets to bring it to more kids’ eyes
so, that, you know, if their friends has diabetes or
they end up in the nurse’s office
and they’re seeing some kid counting out their carbs or whatever,
it’s not so scary or different.
It’s like, “Oh I’ve seen someone do that. That’s really cool!”
Yeah, that’s amazing.
Did you find that there
was a lot of help offered to how do you figure this out
and get used to it?
Or was it kind of something that
you had to figure out on your own?
I was lucky enough that, like, initially, like, in the hospital,
when I was diagnosed,
I was introduced to, you know, different magazines
and I was set up with, you know,
my diabetes educator, and she was awesome.
And she got me right into the diabetes community.
She was like, “We have these events you can go to.
There’s walks, there’s charity events.
The gala. The JDRF Gala.”
Like, all these different events that you could
go to and meet people.
So, I feel like I was pretty well introduced right off the bat
to the diabetes community
and information has only gotten easier
to find and grown since then which is awesome.
That probably made it a lot less scary.
Definitely.
The next question is for Gia.
I know you’re super athletic.
So, can you tell us about some of the activities
and sports you do,
and any challenges you run into while being active,
if there are any at all?
I’ve taken dance classes, played basketball, and soccer.
Some challenges are my blood sugar would drop
from me being so active.
I would have to stop to drink something so I won’t feel shakey.
That must be really scary.
Do you find that if you do it for longer periods of time,
it gets harder?
Or do you, kind of,
acclimate and get used to having to deal with it
and learning how to do that?
I get used to having to deal with it.
That’s great.
Similiarly, to the last question,
Mary, being an actress on Cobra Kai,
what’s it like dealing with Type 1 Diabetes
while also playing a physically demanding role?
It’s been a learning curve at first, you know.
It was definitely, like Gia said,
my blood sugar goes down when I get super active.
My blood sugar spikes when I get stressed out,
so, if I’m like doing a stunt that's particularly difficult,
my body is like, “I am tired.
And I am also stressed about the thing.”
So, I’m just riding this rollar coaster sometimes. But,
obviously, like I said, it’s just about learning it
and then now I can kind of
stop those things before we get to that point.
And everybody in my cast and crew is so supportive
and awesome.
They have been excited to learn about diabetes with me.
So, they’re like,
“What do you need when you get to this situation?"
Okay, so, you need fruit snacks,
you need juice, you need glucose tablets.
All right, we’ll just have those right next to set whenever you go.
Everybody’s been really supportive which is so helpful.
In the show, we see Stacey managing her diabetes,
but we also see her running into some challenges
like eating around her friends
or even sharing her truth with them.
Gia, how much do you relate to her
and that experience if you can relate at all?
Sometimes at my school when it’s a birthday,
the kids bring snacks.
Last week a kid brought popsicles and I couldn’t eat it
because I didn’t know how many carbs it had
so I just started to cry
since I wasn’t able to eat it like my friends.
I’m so sorry.
That must be really tricky to have to deal with.
Gia, what does it typically look like when you’re at school
and you’re about to eat lunch?
What’s your routine like?
First we do prayers,
and then my teacher will allow me
to choose somebody to take me to the nurse’s office.
The nurse puts, like, how much carbs I’m taking,
how much sugar, and if my sugar is really high,
she’ll usually text my mom to make sure it’s okay.
Well, sounds like you have a really great
support system at school, too.
Not only your family but
also all your friends and teachers so that’s really great.
Shay, what was it like to prepare yourself for the role of Stacey.
Did you do any research on Diabetes?
I did do a lot of research.
I talked to other kids that had Type 1 Diabetes and
I read a lot, I watched a lot,
I was really trying to educate myself because I know that
Type 1 Diabetes is something that
real people like you guys live with,
and I wanted to ensure that I was just
really accurately representing it on screen
because I know how incredibly important it is
to see characters that
are similar to you in real life
and how that can really just fully change your outlook
on everything and make you feel so much less alone.
My main goal was just to make sure
Stacey could be a role model
for anyone who is living with diabetes,
especially other kids who are first getting diagnosed
because I know that that’s a really scary time.
And then other than researching diabetes,
Stacey is just a teenage girl.
I just want to say
how much I appreciate that because I think, you know,
like you said there’s not a lot of
characters out there that I could relate to directly,
like, you know, they’re either older than me,
or living a very different lifestyle than me and so
it’s so awesome to see you take that representation so seriously.
That makes me a little emotional.
That means a lot to me and 13-year-old me,
especially being freshly diagnosed,
would have really, really appreciated having a character
to look up to so that’s so awesome.
The next few questions I have for both of you.
What’s one misconception that you hear about T1D?
And misconception meaning, like,
something that people think is true about diabetes
that isn’t acutally true.
I went on a playdate last week on Friday.
A girl let me borrow her goggles
and when I gave them back to her she said,
“Wait, can I catch diabetes?”
My feelings were hurt but I told her that she couldn’t.
I told my dad and he said that she asked a good question
and that it was good I was able to teach her.
I bet it kinda hurts when people think that but
does it make you feel better once they understand
and once you’ve explained it to them?
Yeah.
A really, really common question
that I’m sure you get super tired of, too, Gia is,
“Are you sure you should eat that?”
Yeah.
I’m like...
I really appreciate where it’s coming from
because I know most times it’s coming from
people that care about me
and they just want to look out for me.
You know, it’s one of those things of,
“Hey, trust the person who’s been dealing with this.
Trust the person who got the hours of education
that we had to go through.”
Especially with Type 1 Diabetes, you know,
it’s not like Type 2 Diabetes,
in the sense that there’s less restrictions on
what you can and can’t eat
and I think again that’s just about not a lot of education
being out there about it.
So, I always get excited, in a way,
to answer those types of questions.
But,
There have definitely been plenty of times where somebody’s
cut a slice of birthday cake
and I’ve already done the mental calculations
and I’ve put in my insulin,
I’ve done the whole thing, I’ve done all the math,
and then I go take a bite and somebody is like...
And I’m like, “Just let me enjoy my birthday cake. Thank you.”
If you could describe your journey
with T1D in three words, what would they be?
For me it would be stressful, sad, and hurtful.
It took me time, at least,
to develop a better relationship with my diabetes.
I would say it was definitely, early on, very stressful.
That’s a good word.
But, I think over the years, I think
I’ve developed such a good relationship with my diabetes
that it’s taught me a lot about myself.
So, I would say also strengthing.
It’s made me feel a lot stronger and a lot more confident
about knowing myself and my body.
Encouraging. I think it’s definitely given me a lot of courage.
It’s definitely given me a lot of bravery
that I didn’t think I had before.
What does your guys’ support system look like?
So, like, family, friends, yourself even?
My support system is my mom, my dad, my big sister, Mia,
and my other big sister, Eva.
Sometimes they let me poke their fingers for fun.
I’ve tried that on my little sister and she was not about it.
She was like, “Not even close.
But I’ll stand here and support you.
I’ll hug you if it hurts, but I’m not going to find out for myself.”
I’ve had a really great support system in my family.
You know, my little sister,
she’s only 14 months younger than me.
So, we grew up like twins.
My support system’s has just grown and grown and grown
as I’ve gotten to tell more people.
Now I have, you know, my best friend of 12 years,
she’s just as knowlegeable about it now as I am.
So, I’ve got her, now I’ve got my cast and crew
and everybody’s always constantly like,
“Oh, that’s interesting
that you’re pricking your finger like that.”
Like, “Oh, can it read if you do this?”
Or, “Does it change if you do that?”
And so, my support system has grown over the years
which is really awesome.
That’s incredible.
It just feels like a personal community,
you know, and you have all these incredible people
supporting you like that.
What do you hope for the future for you
and anyone living with T1D?
Sometimes, it will be hard
but you will get through it once you get the hang of it.
That’s really great advice.
I really hope that, you know,
that the diabetes community in general, you know,
that we just continue to get more education out there for people,
more information shared.
I think, like I said, the more you know about it,
the less scary it is
and the more we can all kind of connect on that.
So, I’d love just more and more information out there.
Mary and Gia, it was an honor speaking with you both today.
You both are incredible people.
I learned so much talking with you
and I’m so excited to see all the work
you both continue to do in the future.
It’s important we all learn about Type 1 Diabetes
for our own health
and for friends, family, and/or peers living with it.
Type 1 Diabetes, or T1D,
is a life-threatening autoimmune disease
that strikes both children and adults at any age,
regardless of family history,
and is not caused by diet or lifestyle.
It is currently unpreventable, and there is currently no cure.
Approximately 1.6 million Americans are living with T1D.
To learn more, you can visit jdrf.org/ndam.
Thanks for watching!
Thanks!
Bye.