A Baltimore teen stood in front of major influencers at the United Nations in New York City on Tuesday to share her story about living with a chronic illness called Psoriatic Arthritis.
Ninth grader Beatrice Marciari had hopes of participating in her school's Model UN when she was in the 8th grade, but due to her chronic illness she was bedridden and was forced to let that hope die.
Fast forward to a year later, Marciari put her condition and her disease to raise awareness about living with chronic debilitating diseases on a national platform.
Before she got sick in 2017, she was a typical active teenager who played tennis, and ran cross country, and then her life changed.
"All of a sudden no one knew what was happening to me, so that was not a great time and hard to find something good in all of that but it's only worse when you can't find something good in that. you have to find something good in that to make it better," said Marciari.
At the event, Marciari spoke with representatives from UNICEF and also a big pharmaceutical company.
She has raised more than $16,000 for the National Arthritis Foundation Walk to Cure Arthritis.
