Brooke Shields and daughter working to fight stigma, misinformation about type 1 diabetes

When Brooke Shields’ eldest daughter, 21-year-old Rowan Henchy, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2018 as a high school freshman, the pair knew Henchy would be facing an enormous challenge.

But one that also came with enormous opportunity — to spread awareness and advocacy for other Gen-Zers facing the same challenge.

Type 1 diabetes is a chronic condition in which the pancreas produces little or no insulin — necessitating the sufferer to “[manage] the amount of sugar in the blood using insulin, diet and lifestyle to prevent complications,” according to the Mayo Clinic.

(Conversely, type 2 diabetes is a condition that occurs when the body has a problem in the way it regulates and uses sugar [glucose] as a fuel. In other words, it stops properly processing the insulin produced by the pancreas.)

Last month, Henchy spoke to People magazine about the evolution of her disease — and how she’s finally reached a place where she’s become comfortable managing it.

She first started noticing the alarming symptoms when “I lost a lot of weight, really rapidly. But I was eating two meals [at] each meal. I was consuming so much food and I was just losing weight even faster the more I would eat.”

In addition, she said she was “constantly peeing and then my eyesight started to go and then I got a really bad toe infection. So these are blaring, red flags for undiagnosed type 1 diabetes.”

Growing up fast with diabetes diagnosis

Shields lauded her daughter for adjusting quickly to her new reality.

“I was feeling helpless because we didn’t know what to do and then she became completely autonomous with it,” said Shields. “She was old enough to administer the insulin to herself. And as a 14-year-old, giving yourself shots multiple times a day is a very quick maturation process. She became very competent. She had to grow up quickly.”

Henchy explained that there were times early on that “I wished that I was diagnosed at 5 because I knew a life without it. But even in the years that I’ve had it, there’s already been so many advancements in [treatment] technology.”

To manage the disease, she explained, “I have a pump on my stomach and a Dexcom patch” that she has worn on her arm or stomach.

The Dexcom patch — which she has displayed often on Instagram — is a continuous glucose monitor that sends readings to an app on Henchy’s and Shields’ smartphones.

Shields recalled that, at first, her daughter didn’t want to wear the monitor but that the daily grind of “pricking her fingers all day long finally got annoying to her” — which led to Henchy giving the Dexcom a try.

Henchy noted that monitoring her blood sugar level is “a 24/7 job and I’m never off duty. But at the same time, it’s at the back of my mind. It only controls my thoughts when my blood sugar is too high or too low.”

Understanding of type 1 diabetes through movies, courtside negotiations

Henchy decided to go public on social media with updates about her condition to provide support to others who struggle daily to manage their type 1 diabetes.

Likewise, Shields is using her acting career to raise awareness. She is appearing in the movie “Quarter,” a coming-of-age comedy about a young woman living with type 1 diabetes. The film was written, directed and stars Kelsey Bascom, and is based on the 31-year-old’s experience of living with the condition.

“It’s one of the first type 1 diabetes movies … from a young girl’s perspective … so I think it’s going to be an important movie,” said Shields.

At the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year, both Shields and Henchy spoke at the film’s panel discussion about normalizing the condition — which Bascom has said in interviews promoting “Quarter” was her primary motivation for creating the film.

Ongoing need for type 1 diabetes normalization

In addition to Shields, “Quarter” also features such big-name actors as Eric Roberts, Ali Wentworth, Breckin Meyer and Raven-Symoné, among others.

Bascom explained to the diabetes advocacy website diaTribe.org that she “tried to include lots of the stigmatizing comments that have been stuck in the back of my mind all these years. Things like ‘Did you eat too much sugar as a kid?’ Or ‘If I had to take shots, I would die.’ It was important for me to include these because maybe people will watch ‘Quarter’ and stop to think, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t say that’ or ‘Maybe I should ask a more thoughtful question?’”

Another high-profile person who can attest to the struggles associated with type 1 diabetes is Alexander Zverev, the world’s No. 2-ranked male tennis player.

Diagnosed at age 3, Zverev, 27, has spent his whole career having to monitor his blood sugar level during training and matches and inject himself with insulin when necessary.

However, the powers that be in tennis have not always accommodated Zverev’s condition.

For instance, last year Zverev revealed to tennis.com that at the 2023 French Open he had been asked to inject insulin off the court — using up one of his two allowed bathroom breaks to do so — and received conflicting instructions from supervisors. What’s more, their instructions varied daily.