Gold Coast Schoolgirl Peyton Louiena becomes a social media star amid raw portrayal of Type 1 Diabetes battle

Gold Coast schoolgirl Peyton Louien was never going to let her shock diagnosis with Type 1 Diabetes prevent her from doing all the things she loved – and more. HER INSPIRING TALE >>>

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SCHOOL girl Peyton Louien was never going to let the shock diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes prevent her from doing all the things she loved – and more.

With the help of her parents, the nine-year-old regularly documents her active life and journey living with the condition to more than 1300 followers on Instagram.

She hopes the “online diary” will shatter any stigma of the condition while also being living proof that a diagnosis does not have to mean the end of life as it once was.

Dad Nick said the family only learned of Peyton’s diagnosis three years ago when she was raced to hospital in Melbourne when her body started to “shut down.”

“In the weeks leading up to that she was very skinny and underweight, the more she ate the more weight she’d lose,” he said.

“She was very lethargic, constantly falling asleep on the way to basketball on a Saturday morning as a seven-year-old. It was abnormal and she was always dehydrated.”

Mr Louien said the diagnosis proved an enormous learning curve for the family – but they also refused to let it rule their lives.

“It changed our lives far more dramatically than I think people would realise. Peyton’s mum and I weren’t really aware of Type 1 diabetes. We hadn’t really experienced it before.

Pictured in Southport, Nick Lowien and his Daughter Peyton Lowien age 10 who lives with diabetes and is gaining quite the following on instagram as she documents her journey with the disease to more than 1.2K followers. Pic Mike Batterham

“It’s a 24-hour-a-day management. You have to overhaul their lifestyle and diet. You can eat anything but it’s really how you manage what you eat.”

It was that experience that prompted the family to launch the social media page, hopeful they might help others in a similar situation better understand the condition.

“It was so new to us, so we wanted to be able to help teach other people, especially other kids, about it,” Mr Louien said.

“If we could help other parents understand it more and show their own child who might have recently been diagnosed, that was the whole underlying message – to educate others and help other kids not feel isolated.”

Peyton regularly takes part in representative basketball and enjoys frequent sleepovers at her friend’s houses: “We certainly don’t let it hold her back,” he said.

“You can definitely live a normal life with Type 1 diabetes, that’s probably the really positive message but it does come with a lot of effort.”

Peyton urged any children living with the condition to embrace their new lifestyle: “Don’t be embarrassed that you’ve got it, it’s nothing to be ashamed of and you can’t help that you’ve got it,” she said. You can follow Peyton on Instagram @t1d_peyton.

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Originally published as Gold Coast Schoolgirl Peyton Louiena becomes a social media star amid raw portrayal of Type 1 Diabetes battle