Hydeia Broadbent attends the Los Angeles premiere of Apple’s “They Call Me Magic” at Regency Village Theatre on April 14, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.

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Leon Bennett/Getty Images

Hydeia Broadbent attends the Los Angeles premiere of Apple’s “They Call Me Magic” at Regency Village Theatre on April 14, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.

Leon Bennett/Getty Images

Hydeia Broadbent, recognized for elevating consciousness to minimize the stigma round HIV/AIDS from a younger age, has died at 39 years previous. She was one of many faces of kids with AIDS in America, particularly throughout the African American neighborhood.

Her father, Loren Broadbent, confirmed her surprising passing in a message posted to Facebook on Tuesday. He didn’t share the reason for dying.

“With great sadness, I must inform you all that our beloved friend, mentor and daughter Hydeia, passed away today after living with Aids since birth,” he mentioned within the social media submit. “Despite facing numerous challenges throughout her life, Hydeia remained determined to spread hope and positivity through education around Hiv/AIDS.”

At age 3, Broadbent was identified as constructive with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The illness was handed down by her mom, an IV drug consumer who left her on the hospital, and medical doctors predicted she would not stay previous age 5.

But by the point Broadbent was 6 years previous, she was already sharing her story publicly with the encouragement of her adoptive dad and mom.

Over the years, she made numerous nationwide appearances to boost consciousness about HIV, together with showing on the Oprah Winfrey Show and on a Nickelodeon particular alongside Magic Johnson.

“I want people to know that we’re just normal people,” a tearful Broadbent mentioned within the 1992 particular.

In an interview with CNN 20 years later, Johnson mentioned that the second was pivotal for him.

“That very moment was both sad and inspirational,” he advised CNN. “It made me want to do more to bring awareness to the disease and educate people so that no one would have to feel the way she did that day.”

In 1996, Broadbent would seem on the Republican National Convention and famously state, “I am the future, and I have AIDS.”

In 2002, her household revealed You Get Past the Tears: A Memoir of Love and Survival about their experiences.

She can also be recognized for her work with the Let’s Stop HIV Together marketing campaign launched by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and establishing the Hydeia L. Broadbent Foundation.

In a submit written on her website in 2018, Broadbent marked her thirty fourth birthday as somebody in “the first generation of children born HIV positive.”

“I am here, a force to be reckon with,” she wrote. “These last few years have been extremely difficult; struggles with depression, which reached scary points. A depression so dark, I was not sure how I would see the beauty in life again. I was unsure of how I’d pull myself back up. I now have a new outlook, I’m able to now see the blessing’s, and lesson’s from my valley.”

A GoFundMe organized by her father will be discovered here.