The Year My Life Went Down the Toilet

by Jake Maia Arlow

Twelve-year-old Al Schneider is too scared to talk about the two biggest things in her 1\. Her stomach hurts all the time and she has no idea why. 2\. She’s almost definitely 100% sure she likes girls. So she holds it in…until she can’t. After nearly having an accident of the lavatorial variety in gym class, Al finds herself getting a colonoscopy and an answer—she has Crohn’s disease. But rather than solving all her problems, Al's diagnosis just makes everything worse. It’s scary and embarrassing. And worst of all, everyone wants her to talk about it—her overprotective mom, her best friend, and most annoyingly her gastroenterologist, who keeps trying to get her to go to a support group for kids with similar chronic illnesses. But, who wants to talk about what you do in the bathroom?