When AU freshman Leah Stoltz was diagnosed with scoliosis at the age of 11, she says she felt isolated from those around her.
“The statistic is one in every 40 people having the chance of being diagnosed with scoliosis and I knew that it wasn’t a rare disease,” Leah said. “There had to be other people.”
So Leah decided to do something about it.
Leah was a senior at Smithtown High School West when she became one of the first four winners of the inaugural TeenNick HALO Awards, for her role as the founder of a girl’s scoliosis support group in her hometown of Smithtown, N.Y.
In hopes of fixing the curve in her spine, Leah was required to wear a plastic brace around her torso for two and a half years. When the brace did not fully correct Leah’s spine, she underwent surgery the summer before 10th grade.
After attending a scoliosis support group filled with adults whom she had nothing in common with apart from the disease, Leah decided to take action and form a group of her own. Leah started “The Curvy Girls of Long Island” when she was 13. The support group was for young girls and would meet once a month at Leah’s home. There, young girls can let out their fears and frustrations and plan fundraisers to benefit the Scoliosis Association of Long Island.
Producers of the HALO Awards — created by TeenNick chairman Nick Cannon as a way to recognize real teens that make a difference in their communities — interviewed Leah, and after several meetings, it became clear she was a serious contender for an award. Leah’s actual win, however, came as a complete surprise.
“[Nickelodeon] told me they were doing a pitch; they wanted to follow me around my school with a camera and at my pep rally just to show that I was a relatable teenage girl living in suburbia,” she said.
At the end of the pep rally, Cannon came out and announced that he was there to surprise Leah. She was presented with a $10,000 scholarship, $10,000 fund for the Curvy Girls and a trip to Las Vegas to hang out with Justin Timberlake.
Since the show, many girls with scoliosis have reached out to Leah. Other branches of the Curvy Girls are now popping up across the country and the original Long Island group now boasts about 20 members at each meeting.
Being away at college hasn’t changed Leah’s dedication to the Curvy Girls. Meetings are still held at Leah’s home with two longtime members taking on leadership roles. She also hopes to continue raising awareness about scoliosis in D.C., and eventually form a branch of the Curvy Girls here. But for now, Leah is enjoying life as an AU student (“My college writing teacher’s pretty cool!” she says) and taking in everything D.C. has to offer. She’s a student in the Kogod School of Business and hopes to graduate with a degree in International Business.
TeenNick is airing a two-minute update on Leah until Sept. 26 during their commercial breaks as a follow up to her HALO Award win. One of the moments captured on this update was the annual walk the Scoliosis Association and the Curvy Girls of Long Island team up for. Leading the way with her fellow curvy girls, Leah was gob-smacked when she got up on a podium to give a speech and saw the enormous group that had turned up.
“People tell me how I’ve influenced their life, but truly seeing that — all the girls, all their families and a bunch of their friends … it was one of the most incredible moments of my life,” she said.
thescene@theeagleonline.com
