Emily's Story —
Why We Built Brave Joints

Emily was diagnosed with JIA right when COVID hit, and she was just starting kindergarten.

Overnight, the world locked down. Physical therapy was closed. Occupational therapy was closed. Our 6-year-old needed help moving, and there was nowhere to take her.

So we built our own.

We turned our backyard into a therapy course. We learned the exercises. We became her PT, her OT, her cheerleaders. Children's Hospital Los Angeles helped us get her on the right medications — a long, hard road of trying, adjusting, learning. We changed treatments more than once. We sat through scary side effects. We celebrated tiny wins.

We learned to advocate for our daughter while empowering her to advocate for herself. We tapped into every resource we could find — Facebook groups, the Arthritis Foundation, JIA parent communities. We even used VR headsets to help her stay active and engaged when her joints wouldn't let her move the way she wanted.

That's why Brave Joints exists.

This app is everything we wished we had on day one — a place for kids to feel brave instead of broken, a place for parents to find answers without panicking, and a way for every JIA family to know they're not alone.

Emily is 12 now. She's strong. She's funny. She inspired this.