Stories

Invincible Never Invisible: A Decade of InvisiYouth

July 30, 2025

By Dominique Viel

When you reach that tipping point of living with chronic illness for longer than you’ve lived without chronic illness, it was important for me to also figure out what other milestones that I’ve been able to reach in my life. And nothing has been a greater pull to adapt to thrive than reaching ten years since the launch of InvisiYouth Charity.

I could have never imagined this idea, this dream and passion of mine when I was 22 years old living in my university dorm room would turn into a decade of my life empowering so many young adults around the world living with chronic illnesses and disability.

InvisiYouth stemmed initially from my personal experience living with chronic illnesses as a teen/young adult, and how I was able to realize that providing personal development resources for the non-medical aspects of life with a chronic illness/disability was important to a massive group of young people.

I was competitive tennis player as a teen and was unfortunately injured in training, which resulted in dealing with an injury and neurovascular condition that changed the trajectory of my life. I was thrust into the world of living with a chronic illness, years of trying to find proper diagnoses and treatments, all while balancing life as a teen/young adult. During this entire young adult experience, my doctors would tell me “wait” till they could fix my health to live my life fully–to go to university, join those hobbies and expand my world as I grew, but I knew that wasn’t a realistic result.

Thus, I created InvisiYouth out of my love of philanthropy, and my newfound passion to giving a voice for the young adult population living with all chronic illnesses and disabilities for the non-medical aspects of their lives with health struggles. InvisiYouth is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of teens and young adults living with all types of chronic illness, rare disease and disability, through free digital resources and subtle activism. Our focus is on daily life improvements and tangible resources for the non-medial aspects of life with health struggles to this demographic so they can have access to advice, personal development tools, and mental wellbeing resources aimed at their success and joy in daily living.

And knowing the millennial/Gen-Z populations are the largest demographic globally with over 10% of the world living with disability, I knew I wasn’t alone in wanting to live a fulfilled life WITH my health struggles instead of fighting against them. I wanted other young adults to never wait for a cure/recovery to live a full life, but have tangible, downloadable resources that focused on mental wellbeing, personal development and life advice on all the facets of living a life with health struggles, so young people (13-35) could adapt to thrive and find their own voices.

Now, after being a “professional patient” for 16 years (half my life), along with leading InvisiYouth Charity as founder and executive director for past ten years, it’s amazing to know our resources have been downloaded in over 12 countries with hundreds of young adults every month getting to utilize anything that suits their life development goals while living with their chronic illness/disability. It’s our video podcast series, InvisiYouth Chat Sessions that I host with over 100 episodes interviewing special guests from around the world that have learned to adapt to thrive living with all types of chronic illness and disability to become Paralympians, content creators, authors, models, advocates, and so much more. It’s in our Audio Flash Files with short life advice techniques to adapt and thrive in all life situations, or our Galaxy Glossary and Digital Life Guidesheets–all available in our monthly Galaxy Hub by InvisiYouth newsletter.

I’ve always wanted to create resources that were what I wish was available to me as I navigated the challenging time of growing up and finding my voice and life path while balancing my health changes of chronic illness. Resources that were accessible to meet a young adult living with chronic illness or disability on the part of the journey in life that they are at, to have an array of resource topics so there’s something for everyone. Every teen or young adult living with chronic illness or disability should be fueled to know they can carve their own lane of success and joy by finding that personal development in the non-medical aspects of their lives to adapt and thrive.

“Always be invincible, never invisible” isn’t just how I’ve created the name InvisiYouth, but it’s also a mindset that’s infiltrated my way of living life with chronic illness that I hope empowers young adults for another decade and beyond.

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