ABSTRACT
Reported benefits of social media for sick children and their families include access to health information, social support, and connectivity with peers, health providers, and institutions. Using social media, sick children and their families can create a ‘networked illness’, where the sharing of personal experience may override statements of expert knowledge, while also educating and raising awareness about the experience of living with, or surviving, an illness. This chapter includes a case study analysis of CarecaTV, a popular YouTube channel in Brazil, started by Lorena Reginato in 2016 when she was 12 years old and recovering from brain cancer.
