“Surreal” is how Kelsey Bascom describes her journey with Type 1 diabetes. That about covers how the actor and filmmaker went from keeping her diagnosis “so private” for 10 years to using it for inspiration for her debut film — and becoming a public advocate for people with Type 1 in the process.
“I really thought Type 1 diabetes might stop me, in some way, from living my dreams,” Bascom told SheKnows in an exclusive interview before the Breakthrough T1D Promise Gala in November. “And now it feels very surreal that Type 1 diabetes has actually been a big part of me living my dreams.”
The dream Bascom is referring to: her career as an actor and filmmaker, which is set to take off with her debut feature film, Quarter. Bascom wrote, co-directed, and stars in the coming-of-age comedy, which follows a young woman with Type 1 diabetes on the cusp of her 25th birthday. The film, for which Bascom is currently looking for distribution, also features big-name stars like Ali Wentworth, Raven-Symoné, and Brooke Shields, whose daughter, Rowan, lives with the condition.
“I wrote the film like a stream of consciousness,” Bascom says. “It’s almost like I was writing in a journal… I opened up about things about living with Type 1 diabetes that I hadn’t even told my family before.” So how did she go from keeping her diagnosis a secret to making an intensely personal film about it? “It’s been a crazy journey,” Bascom says.
Bascom was 17 when the symptoms of Type 1 diabetes started to show: weight loss, excessive sleep, nonstop thirst which led to frequent bathroom breaks. “I just couldn’t get enough water,” she remembers. Then a routine wisdom teeth removal led to an infection that wouldn’t go away, despite rounds of antibiotics. Bascom could tell something was wrong.
One night, up from running back and forth to the bathroom, Bascom finally turned to Google. “All the results were just diabetes,” she remembers. Bloodwork and a trip to the doctor’s office the next day confirmed it, and showed that Bascom’s self-diagnosis came just in time. “The doctor called and said, ‘Her body’s shutting down. She needs to be hospitalized right now,'” Bascom recalls.
Type 1 diabetes is a chronic autoimmune disease that occurs when your pancreas doesn’t make insulin. It’s different than Type 2, which happens when your body makes insulin but can’t use it properly. Type 2 also develops over time, is more common in adults, and can be caused by a combination of lifestyle and genetic factors; Type 1, which Bascom has, typically develops in children and young adults, and is much less common. The cause is unknown, and there’s no cure.
For Bascom, as a teenager, it was a lot to take in. “There was a lot of confusion,” she remembers. “I thought, ‘Why is this happening to me? Did I do something to cause this?… This is now something I’m gonna have to live with every day for the rest of my life.’ There’s a lot of grief.”
Bascom’s family was supportive, but as she started college and her adult life, she kept her diagnosis private due to the stigma around diabetes. “I would get a lot of comments like, ‘Did you eat too much sugar as a kid?'” she says, even though Type 1 diabetes isn’t thought to be caused by lifestyle factors. People would comment on her continuous glucose monitor (CGM) or insulin pump if she wore them out and about. So she didn’t, choosing not to use the tools if it meant avoiding unwanted comments. “I didn’t want anyone to know just by looking at me,” Bascom explains. “It was a lot of shame.”
Then, Bascom started experiencing “a lot of very scary low blood sugar episodes while I was sleeping,” she says. “My doctor thought it was really important for me to try a CGM to wake me up when I go low, or alert my friends and family.” She ended up liking the device, which emboldened her to try an insulin pump for the first time, a full 10 years after her diagnosis.
“Having these devices actually gave me more control over diabetes,” she explains, “and I felt more proud to wear them, because it was changing my life so positively, and I felt like ready to share it.”
At the same time, her career was starting to take off. Bascom had just seen her social media following grow after co-creating and starring in the web series Mondays, so when she posted a photo of herself in a cropped sweater wearing her Omnipod on her stomach, it made an immediate impact.
“I got hundreds of messages and DMs and comments,” she says. “I had never received such positive words and encouragement, and just people relating to my story… I realized so many other people living with Type 1 diabetes felt the same way I did. They were feeling very alone and isolated. And I thought, ‘if this is what like one post could do, imagine what it would be like if I opened up in my work, in the film.”
Bascom hopes to give Type 1 diabetes an authentic portrayal in Quarter, to help those that have it feel more seen and those that don’t understand it more deeply. That kind of true representation of Type 1 is something she says she’s never seen in film before. “There are so many misconceptions and and stereotypes about Type 1 diabetes,” she says. “I think it’s been very overly dramatized in media. When I see a film, especially a drama or thriller and a character has Type 1 diabetes, I always feel like, ‘Oh, no. I don’t know if they’re gonna make it to the end of this.”
Bascom admits that such portrayals scared her and never felt true to life. Far from being a weakness or a tragic plot point, she says, “I think Type 1 diabetes has actually given me a lot of strength.”
Before you go, read about other celebs living with chronic conditions:
