People Will Love You for Who You Are - by Erin Theriault

My name is Erin Theriault. I am originally from San Diego, California. I have mosaic TS and was diagnosed before birth. I will be turning 30 years old in 2023! I am very fortunate to be married to a pilot who can take me flying in small planes! We like to go flying together over the mountains and beaches of California. My husband and I met years ago performing in community theater and we both still like to go to shows together. A fun fact is I have a girl cat named Stevie named after Steve Harrington, a character from the Netflix show Stranger Things.

I am proud of how I persevered through my twenties. Like most people, my twenties have been filled with many big changes and a lot of figuring out who I am. I moved a lot, left a relationship, decided to go back to school for my master’s in early childhood education, and reconnected with my future husband. Now as I am about to turn thirty, I feel so happy and grateful for where I am in life.

The person I most admire is my mother. My mom has always been very close to me. She has always been the person I can go to for anything. I am lucky to have two very supportive parents. My favorite author is probably Kristin Hannah. Her book The Nightingale about two sisters' experiences during World War II in France was very emotionally moving to me. I like books that are suspenseful and make you feel something.

I dealt with some pretty big insecurity when I was younger, around high school age, due to my Turner syndrome. I worried about how I looked or whether I was as smart as my peers. Going out of state to college helped me to gain confidence and overall become a much more independent person. As I got older, I learned to accept myself physically and I proved to myself that I could keep up academically as well.

The advice I would give my younger self is to not stress so much about small things, like how tall you are and what you look like. In the end, people will love you for who you are.