About the Author Carrie Durso
Carrie Durso is a high school student from Friendswood Texas. She is passionate about Rare Disease/chronic illness awareness and helping others. Carrie was diagnosed with Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome at 14 years old. Since getting diagnosed, Carrie was frustrated by the lack of children’s literature about growing up with chronic illness. Carrie made it her mission to provide children with chronic illness a story to relate to by writing “You’re not alone Little Zebra” for her Girl Scout Gold Award.
Why the zebra?
The Zebra is a common symbol for a rare disease or diagnosis in medicine. This symbol came from the old saying when training doctors that “when you hear hooves expect a horse, not a zebra.” Doctors were trained to look for the more common cause instead of a rare one. Zebras have now become a symbol for the rare disease community around the world. I hope that this book makes all the little zebras feel seen and not alone on their medical journey.