Surrounded by spools of colorful yarns, Julia Cheon (12) carefully crochets a half-double stitch, forming the base for a Miffy rabbit keychain. The keychain will join a growing collection of memorabilia that Cheon sells for Straightened Futures, a self-run nonprofit raising funds to donate to scoliosis charities. Diagnosed with scoliosis at 11 years old, Cheon said she was inspired to kickstart Straightened Futures in February after seeing the impact scoliosis had on others.
“When I searched up ‘scoliosis’ on social media, I expected to find hacks and exercises to help ease the pain,” she said. “But I ended up finding entire pages of how children with scoliosis struggle a lot. Many of these children around the world feel that they’re not enough because they think they are defined by their scoliosis. I started Straightened Futures because I wanted to help people realize that they are more than just their condition.”
Cheon said her own experiences as a scoliosis patient contributed to her decision to start this project.
“I felt like I was trapped in my own body, and I couldn’t control what was happening to me,” she said. “I had a lot of hope in the back brace I had, but I knew it doesn’t always work. It didn’t work for me. [My scoliosis] grew more drastically as I grew, which shrunk my motivation to do things. I felt like I was going to be in my bed forever. Straightened Futures became my way of breaking out of that.”
Cheon started the planning process in December, spending three months preparing her inventory and selling method. She said she now has an efficient system for buying and selling.
“I post crochet items [on the Straightened Futures Instagram] that I know I want to remake on Instagram so people can [direct message] me if they want to purchase them,” she said. “But I also offer custom orders, which are more for friends and family. I’m looking to offer this publicly soon. I deliver orders by hand if they go to Westview or Mt. Carmel; if they don’t live near, I also ship.”
Selling her miniature creations on Instagram as well as through personal connections, Cheon began to fill her time with crochet. By curating what she offered publicly, Cheon said she was able to sell trinkets that had significant meaning to her.
“I offered Miffy plushies, which is a very popular character,” Cheon said. “But it also has an important meaning in my life. [Because of my diagnosis,] I felt like I was less than others, especially in middle school, but I found a way to persevere by running away from these thoughts. Because of this, my mom would call me a rabbit because rabbits are able to persevere through hard times.”
Through Straightened Futures, Cheon was able to meet with children across the state living with scoliosis as she traveled to hand-deliver her products. She said interacting with them has transformed her crochet process into a method of honoring scoliosis patients.
“I’ve met patients with more severe degrees [of scoliosis] than me, and it makes me want them to have better resources than what is currently offered,” she said. “So when I crochet in my free time, I think about them a lot. I don’t like crocheting with distractions like podcasts and videos because I want to dedicate every single stitch to thinking about the patients. I’m crocheting with every intent of helping them.”
After six months of fundraising stitch-by-stitch, Cheon amassed more than $800 to donate to Setting Scoliosis Straight, an El Cajon-based nonprofit devoted to increasing awareness for scoliosis. Cheon said she found herself closely aligning with the nonprofit’s mission.
“I like the fact that they’re not just donating money to another research center,” she said. “Instead, they focus on educating people about scoliosis. From my experience, most people have heard of scoliosis, but they don’t really know the impacts of it and how it can endanger patients.”
When she mailed the check to Setting Scoliosis Straight, Cheon said she felt immensely proud of her progress.
“If I could talk to myself when I first got diagnosed, I think she’d be shocked because I was initially so set on the fact that I wasn’t able to do anything [because of my condition],” she said. “I think Straightened Futures is a representation of how I’ve evolved over time, and donating that first check was physical paper proof that I did something.”
By starting Straightened Futures, Cheon said her perception of her own life with scoliosis has become more hopeful. As an intern at UCSD Health, her opportunities to interact with scoliosis patients in-person contributed to this as well.
“Before, I struggled a lot with insecurity because I had a severe [scoliosis] degree [of curvature],” Cheon said. “But while I was crocheting and talking to other patients and staff members [at UCSD], I realized that people with scoliosis can do whatever they want. They can achieve what they have in their minds. And in discovering that, I realized that the same is true for me. I can do whatever I put my mind to. Even if I have to work harder than other people, I can do what I want if I just start doing it.”
These experiences contributed to her interest in pursuing a career in public health, where she hopes to become a voice for underrepresented medical conditions such as scoliosis.
“As a scoliosis patient, I feel like I haven’t seen anything to help patients with scoliosis, which makes me angry,” Cheon said. “This changed my view on public health, as I realized that society needs to know more about certain conditions and disabilities that are underrepresented in the community. That’s why I want to go into public health. I want to change the way public health educates the community about conditions like scoliosis.”
As Cheon plans on continuing to expand Straightened Futures to raise more funds for scoliosis non-profits, she said that crochet has become a meaningful symbol of her journey with scoliosis and her own non-profit.
“With crochet, it’s just a piece of string, but you can make it into something that you want it to be,” she said. “Scoliosis used to be like a pile of yarn for me; there was no use for it. But once I realized I wanted to use scoliosis as a motivation to help other people, I started controlling it with my own hands and created something beautiful from it, just like crochet.”
