Meet Zachary Willmore – the teen dancing a viral tango with an HIV diagnosis. In his sassy TikTok vids, he’s hugging his way out of the stigma, belting out “hit me with your best shot” for a medical update and proving there’s life after being diagnosed with HIV – even if it once felt like the end of the world.
Willmore, SDSU Freshman and resident trendsetter at 19, felt flu-y over winter break. The results were in: HIV was the party crasher. The dating profile of Willmore’s life now included a new diagnosis.
But what’s a social media sensation to do? “To TikTok!” cried Willmore, as his 1.8 million followers attended his online HIV masterclass, from Zara shopping hauls with mom to serious safe-sex convos.
One video struck a chord: 15 million views of Willmore digesting his diagnosis while pretending everything’s cool in class. “Life goes on!” he tells us. For every viewer that accuses him of making HIV trendy, Willmore’s got a clapback and a fan cheering him on for decades longer.
When the diagnosis news broke, mom Leila felt like her heart dropped into her socks. Was this really happening? But she soon realized her boy could handle it.
As Theodore, Willmore’s dad and handy ER doctor, gave him the 411 on HIV, Zach realized there’s a future with this condition – even if he didn’t see himself living past 20. But Theo was there to remind him that 40 years ago, it was game over, and now it’s just a medical irritation.
Per Lawrence Yang, a prof who’s studied stigma for 25 years: people like Willmore bust stigmas in society by preaching the truth.
And the truth is that life takes pills. Or shots. Zach spilled the beans to his peeps in a viral TikTok that his illness gets dealt with through a daily dose at 11 a.m. Boom! He’s one healthy dude, especially since the virus ain’t showing up in his blood no more, even though he “didn’t really do anything.”
Back in the day, young, emo, seventh-grade Zach came out to his classmates in a PowerPoint presentation. You might say this kid’s been owning his life story since before TikTok was a thing.
