[0:00] Yeah, I was born and raised in New [0:02] Brighton and I just loved it and I'd [0:06] even love to go back there someday to [0:08] live. [0:08] >> Rachel Revan was born and raised in New [0:11] Brighton and has always appreciated its [0:13] sense of community. [0:14] >> I loved it because it's just it's like a [0:16] small town feeling and our neighborhood [0:20] was super nice. Everyone knew each other [0:23] and we would get together for [0:25] neighborhood events. So yeah, New [0:27] Brighton's great. This sense of [0:29] community led Rachel to advocacy work [0:31] and looking to find people who share her [0:33] experience with albinism, a condition [0:36] that affects the amount of melanin the [0:38] body produces. [0:39] >> So I'm part of Noah, which stands for [0:41] national organization for albinism and [0:44] hypopigmentation [0:46] and I've written some articles for their [0:50] insight magazine which is the albinism [0:52] magazine. I have a blog on it's called a [0:56] pearls blog and it's with positive [0:59] exposure which is a nonprofit yeah blog [1:02] on there where I talk about like my life [1:04] and what it's like to have disabilities. [1:06] I started my blog before that and at [1:09] first it started as kind of like a [1:11] bioeththics blog where I would like [1:12] share my views on bioeththics and stuff [1:15] and then it kind of morphed into like [1:18] disability stuff. I found out that [1:20] people really enjoyed reading about when [1:23] I would write about my own disabilities [1:26] and people would um say like, "Wow, that [1:29] really helped me understand it more." [1:30] >> While there are large-scale events [1:32] throughout the country related to [1:34] albinism, Rachel wanted to make a [1:36] smaller local space for people who have [1:38] the condition but may lack the resources [1:40] to attend the bigger convocations. It's [1:43] important because when I was little, I [1:46] never met anyone with albinism and so I [1:49] felt really isolated and like I was just [1:53] like the only person and I felt [1:54] self-conscious. And then finally in [1:56] college I met two people with it and I [1:58] was like, "Oh my goodness, this is so [2:00] amazing." And that's when I went to my [2:03] first get albvinism get together that I [2:06] didn't plan, someone else had planned. [2:08] And I remembered how great that was. And [2:10] so then I wanted to plan my own. I feel [2:12] like I can relate to people when we have [2:15] the same disability and um it just [2:19] brings community together.