A teenager with a rare skin disease known as the ‘butterfly disease’ has appeared in a now-viral VRChat video, explaining what life is like living with the condition. The fledgling Twitch streamer, who goes by ‘ThatGeekAaron‘ on the streaming site, has now received an outpouring of support from its community after sharing his story.
ThatGeekAaron appeared in a YouTube video uploaded by Symor, a popular creator known for posting interviews with other VRChat players. Aaron, using a Piglett avatar in the virtual reality game, opened up to Symor about dealing with epidermolysis bullosa, an incredibly painful autoimmune disease that causes the skin to be extremely fragile.
Aaron explained the trials and tribulations of the disease, which includes having to be routinely bandaged and the extreme pain he faces when carrying out everyday tasks such as showering. “The water really hurts my body because of all the wounds,” Aaron said.
Aaron also discussed the social ramifications he has faced as a result of epidermolysis bullosa. “The thing that sucks about this disease is that whenever I go out in public — which usually I don’t, but when I do for like special occasions — people always stare at me, which is a very sad thing for me. Because I don’t wanna be stared at, I just wanna be looked at like a normal person.”
Aaron also went on to discuss a friendship he struck up with a girl in his school, who made sure to sit next to him at lunch whenever he was lonely. “She was like my only friend,” he told Symor. “The first time I met her, she said I was cute, which I thought was very flattering and I kinda felt awkward. But she was actually really cute, she was pretty, and I had a crush on her.”
The video can be viewed below:
The video quickly made its way to the front page of Reddit, with it receiving hundreds of thousands of views in the process. Now the Twitch community has rallied behind Aaron, helping him make strong strides towards his goal of becoming a professional streamer.
Since Symor’s video went live, Aaron’s Twitch channel has received nearly 13,000 new followers. With him previously only having over 1,000 followers, the ThatGeekAaron channel has 14,000 followers at the time of this writing, with many players jumping in across the weekend to check out his Fortnite streams. Given his condition, Aaron utilizes foot pedals in order to build in the game, and viewers have been impressed by his skills in the battle royale shooter.
With the Twitch community now rallying behind the young streamer, he could be well on his way to realizing his dream of turning his hobby into a career. If nothing else, it’s nice to see the internet putting its powers to good use sometimes.
