In 2018, Rowan Henchy, the 21-year-old daughter of Brooke Shields, finally came to terms with managing her Type 1 diabetes diagnosis.
It was during her freshman year of high school when Rowan, Brooke Shields's eldest, began to notice alarming symptoms.
"I dropped a significant amount of weight really fast," recalls Henchy, whose father, Chris Henchy, is Brooke's second husband, a comedy writer, and director. "But I was consuming enormous quantities of food, double portions each time, and yet the more I ate, the more weight I seemed to lose."
"There were other signs too," she adds, "I was constantly running to the bathroom, my vision began to blur, and I even developed a severe infection in my toe. These were unmistakable signs of undiagnosed Type 1 diabetes."
Rowan received her diagnosis later that same year and has been managing the condition ever since. Now in her senior year at Wake Forest University, where her younger sister Grier, 18, has just embarked on her freshman year, Rowan often posts photos on Instagram that showcase her Dexcom patch as a way to destigmatize the condition.
"It took some adjusting," admits her mother, Brooke, now 59.
The diagnosis itself was challenging, but it coincided with Rowan switching schools. "The first few months were tough," she remembers. "My friends from my old school were hanging out with boys, while I decided to move to an all-girls school and then got diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. It was a rough year overall."
"That school eventually became my favorite place, and I made lifelong friends there," she continues. "Grier also ended up going there, so it worked out well in the end. But freshman year was hard. It was more like, 'This happened. How can I keep moving forward without succumbing to sadness or depression?'"
Understanding the disease and having the right tools to manage it made a huge difference.
"It also helped that she matured," recalls her mother. Brooke notes, "I felt helpless initially because we were clueless about what to do, but she became completely self-reliant. At 14, she was already administering her own insulin shots multiple times a day, which is a quick path to maturity. She became incredibly competent and had to grow up fast."
Rowan agrees with her mother's assessment.
"There were moments I wished I had been diagnosed at 5 years old because then I wouldn't remember life without it," she admits. "But even in the four years since my diagnosis, there have been so many technological advancements."
"I have an insulin pump on my stomach and a Dexcom patch that continuously monitors my glucose levels," she explains. "It's a 24/7 job, and I'm never off-duty, always vigilant about my sugar levels. But most of the time, it's in the back of my mind. It only occupies my thoughts when my blood sugar spikes too high or plummets too low. No matter the headache, you find a way to navigate through it. It’s simply a part of me now, something to manage."
Brooke shares that it took her a while to feel comfortable with Rowan's new reality. "For the longest time, she wouldn't wear the monitor, and the constant finger pricking throughout the day became intolerable. So, having the monitor and being able to track her levels on my phone means I no longer have to pester her constantly."
Brooke is also committed to raising awareness about Type 1 diabetes. She recently completed a film titled "Quarter," a coming-of-age comedy centered on a young woman living with Type 1 diabetes. The film was written and stars Kelly Bascom, inspired by her own experiences with the condition. Brooke and Rowan participated in a panel discussion about the film at the Tribeca Film Festival last spring to help normalize the condition. "Kelly Bascom is a young woman who wrote, directed, and stars in the movie," explains Brooke. "It's one of the first films to focus on Type 1 diabetes. There are hardly any movies about diabetes, especially from a young woman's perspective. I think it's going to be a significant film."
The Quran - Chapter Al-Qalam : 42 - 43
˹Beware of˺ the Day the Shin ˹of Allah˺ will be bared, and the wicked will be asked to prostrate, but they will not be able to do so,
with eyes downcast, totally covered with disgrace. For they were ˹always˺ called to prostrate ˹in the world˺ when they were fully capable ˹but they chose not to˺.
