SenioR project
PCOS Awareness
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been living with a range of symptoms—depressive moods, anxiety, exhaustion, chronic pain, and a constant buzzing in my ear that my struggles "aren't that bad." From the age of twelve, I struggled silently, believing these challenges were just part of my reality, something I had to push through. I had never heard anyone else describe the level of pain I was in, and it wasn’t until January 2022 that I finally received an answer: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, or PCOS.
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The diagnosis was a bittersweet relief. After years of feeling dismissed by both family and professionals, I finally understood the source of my physical and emotional turmoil. But the truth was both a burden and a blessing. I learned that PCOS was more than just physical pain—it was a complex hormonal disorder that led to anxiety, diabetes, and a host of other challenges. But the real turning point was finding the right care—care that I wish I had received years ago. In just a few months, I began to feel like a different person, no longer consumed by exhaustion and pain, and with my anxiety under control for the first time in years.
Creating
the project
It took a lot of research and restraint to write the script for this project, trying to keep my personal experiences to a minimum while sifting through different information. Everyone tends to react to hormonal conditions differently, and this is no exception. Balancing the information load was also a struggle, since there is a lot to say, but this was only meant to be a stepping stone informational for people to do more research and ask their doctors if this could be something they have. I wrote the script, was lucky to have a mother with a very nice narrator voice, and had fun directing her through her lines even if I would have to edit them down piece by piece because we were laughing and joking throughout.
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Next was creating a character to humanize the information. I came up with Maggie, who is just your average woman intending to just exist normally only to be hit with her normalized symptoms. I created a rough storyboard for this as well based on the script, editing both to fit together.
Then I began hand-animating the scenes. Due to time and my own skill limitations, the animation is rough around the edges but I think aids to the simplistic way I wanted to convey the information. A little, unintimidating bite of information that I would have appreciated at 12...or 20...or now. While unintentional, it helped shape it.
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Final
Thoughts
I want to say this little project was a wonderful way to meet others with PCOS. It is one thing to know it is common but another to see the faces of those it has also affected and I feel less alone in my struggles. I hope I was able to do the same for those people as well and anyone else who might see this video. Thank you.