It is with great pride that I announce the tenth anniversary of Positive Exposure. In June 1998, Life Magazine’s Redefining Beauty hit the newsstands. Since then, Positive Exposure has become a powerful voice and advocate for people living with difference, celebrating those affected by genetic conditions and redefining beauty before a worldwide audience.

Positive Exposure grew bigger and better in 2007, reaching more health care professionals, medical students, families, children and individuals living with genetic difference, as well as members of the general public, than ever before.

This has been a year of many firsts.

Grants: This year Positive Exposure received its first major grant, from Newman's Own Foundation. Inspired by this fundraising milestone we have brought on board a professional grant writer, Myra Donnelley, to help PE pursue further funding opportunities. 

Media: Publications and broadcast media exposure this year includes two wonderful opportunities at opposite ends of the information spectrum.  Our PAVE program, a survey exploring Positive Exposure’s effect on self esteem through a qualitative and quantitative study funded by the National Institute of Health, was published in the American Journal of Medical Genetics. The Hallmark TV segment on NEW DAY, a nationally syndicated program, aired in December. The Hallmark producers discovered Positive Exposure through Steven Post and Jill Niemark’s book entitled “Why Good Things Happen To Good People” Broadway Books, released in June 2007. Chapter 12 is all about Positive Exposure.

Web: Our new elegant website designed by Grey Advertising Creative Director, Roger Kilmartin and web guru Kim Puchir showcases the beauty of human diversity. The new blog makes it easier to keep up with Positive Exposure's events.

Exhibitions: We premiered a 50 image show in November at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. The success of the exhibition at this venue has prompted the development of a touring exhibition featuring children living with genetic conditions at Children’s hospitals nationwide. We also exhibited at The American Society of Human Genetics Conference in San Diego and at the Genetic ALiiance’s Annual Conference in DC.

Conferences: Like every year, Positive Exposure traveled to over 25 genetic support group and other conferences to celebrate the unique beauty of hundreds of children and adults. Those of you who have witnessed a child's first Positive Exposure photo-shoot may be familiar with how moving it is to see a shy child transform before the camera creating and confirming the formula:

Self-Acceptance = Self-Esteem = Self-Advocacy

Peer Education: Seeing their own beauty captured on film is a revelation for some kids, but self acceptance and self esteem are only part of the battle: young people living with a difference often find little to affirm that vision at school. To address these issues, Positive Exposure has developed diversity awareness programs for all ages and has been educating students and teachers about the many faces of beauty using photography, video, and hands-on exercises. At several schools where students living with genetic conditions attend we have enabled the entire student body to become ambassadors for social change addressing issues of stigma and diversity utilizing their own passions and talents—photography, dance, music, writing, painting.

Caregiver Education: Improving the lives of people with genetic conditions also means educating their current and future caregivers about what it is like to live with difference. Positive Exposure has developed ongoing relationships with medical schools, genetic counseling and nursing programs where our alternative vision of genetic difference is increasingly gaining acceptance. In collaboration with University of Maryland’s medical school, we are planning an online genetic reference site for medical students and other health care professionals-in-training  Most importantly the site will feature people living with genetic conditions sharing their experiences through imagery and video interviews.

Our Positive Ties program, in collaboration with Weill Medical School, will be a sustainable and portable medical school curriculum module addressing social and ethical issues of concern to people living with genetic conditions and utilizing Positive Exposure’s life affirming photographs and video interviews as a powerful central strategy to broker systemic social change in medical education.

Upcoming Trips: In 2008 we plan to travel to Kenya, Tanzania, Australia, China, the Middle East, and Panama.

Positive Exposure is about gorgeous people; it's about the lasting vision of a beauty that everyone can access, just by being who we are, or encountering each other with honesty and compassion. Once you get a glimpse of this vision, you can't stop seeing it: it's energizing, it's transformative, and it's important. Thank you for supporting Positive Exposure's vision last year and I hope you will be moved to contribute again this year. 

Thank you and Happy New Year,

 

Rick Guidotti
Director and Founder