Marvelyn Brown (born May 7, 1984) is an African-American author and

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

activist. She is the founder of Marvelous Connections, an HIV/AIDS organization founded in 2006. She wrote the autobiography ''The Naked Truth: Young, Beautiful and (HIV) Positive'', which tells her story as a young

heterosexual Heterosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction or sexual behavior between people of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to ...

woman living with HIV. She has delivered public speeches and made public appearances in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, the

Virgin Islands The Virgin Islands ( es, Islas Vírgenes) are an archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. They are geologically and biogeographically the easternmost part of the Greater Antilles, the northern islands belonging to the Puerto Rico Trench and St. Croix ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

, and

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

Early life

Brown was born on May 7, 1984, in

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

. She describes in her autobiography that she had regular clashes with her mother, but the two have since reconciled."Top 5 FAQ"
The Naked Truth, August 9, 2008. She has two half-siblings with whom she keeps in contact, but has not actually met them in person due to them living across the country from her.

HIV diagnosis

Having little knowledge on

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

, Brown was unaware that the disease could be contracted through heterosexual sex. She was a healthy track and basketball athlete but began showing symptoms of an unknown illness that became critical enough to put her in an intensive-care unit. Doctors were unable to determine the cause of her illness, and Brown began to wonder if she had contracted HIV. She was diagnosed HIV-positive thereafter at the age of 19 in 2003, and discovered she had contracted the virus from her boyfriend at the time. In an interview with ''The Body'', Brown stated "How did I not know that the virus was sexually transmitted? I felt I had been robbed by my community, my school and my church. The mantras I had heard over and over again growing up — 'Don't do drugs; don't get pregnant; don't smoke' — suddenly seemed so worthless. Never had someone mentioned the possibility of me, Marvelyn Brown, contracting HIV from unprotected sex. I had seen it as something only Africans or gay men got."

HIV/AIDS activism

Her humanitarian work earned her a 2007 Emmy Award for Outstanding National PSA, and she won the Do Something Award in 2009. She was inducted into The Heroes In The Struggle Photo Exhibit by The Magic Johnson Foundation and The Black AIDS Institute in 2010 and named a Modern Day Black History month hero by BET and was honored by the New Jersey NETS in 2011. She has appeared on ''

The Oprah Winfrey Show ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', often referred to as ''The Oprah Show'' or simply ''Oprah'', is an American daytime broadcast syndication, syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in Chicag ...

'', ''

America's Next Top Model ''America's Next Top Model'' (abbreviated ''ANTM'' and ''Top Model'') is an American reality television series and interactive competition in which a number of aspiring models compete for the title of "America's Next Top Model" and a chance to b ...

'',

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

, MTV,

BET Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los A ...

, and ''

The Tavis Smiley Show ''The Tavis Smiley Show'' was an American public broadcasting radio talk show. Public Radio International ''The Tavis Smiley Show'' was broadcast on Public Radio International (PRI). It was a one-hour weekly program featuring interviews with new ...

''. She has also appeared in ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

'', ''

Ebony Magazine ''Ebony'' is a monthly magazine that focuses on news, culture, and entertainment. Its target audience is the African-American community, and its coverage includes the lifestyles and accomplishments of influential black people, fashion, beauty, an ...

'', and ''Real Health'' magazines. Her public-service announcement for Think MTV won an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

. Brown was named one of the Top 25 Heroes of the past twenty-five years of the AIDS epidemic, alongside

Alicia Keys Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), known professionally as Alicia Keys, is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. A classically trained pianist, Keys started composing songs when she was 12 and was signed at 15 years old by Col ...

Magic Johnson Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. (born August 14, 1959) is an American former professional basketball player. He is often regarded as the greatest point guard of all-time and has been compared with Stephen Curry. Johnson played 13 seasons in the ...

and

Phill Wilson Phill Wilson is an American activist who founded the Black AIDS Institute in 1999, and served as its CEO, and is a prominent African-American HIV/AIDS activist. Career Phill Wilson's career in activism started after he and his partner, Chris B ...

. Her stories had been featured in British publications of ''Cosmopolitan'', ''Glamour'', ''Pride'', and ''Fabulous Magazine'' and has been featured on the covers ''A&U'', '' POZ'', and ''The Ave''.

Accusations of HIV/AIDS glorification

On October 3, 2008, Brown posted to her blog that she had been accused of glorifying her illness. "I am constantly being accused of glamorizing AIDS. Really? There is nothing glamorous about taking 7 horse pills that still make me gage 'sic''">sic.html" ;"title="'sic">'sic''after 4 1⁄2 years taking them. I contracted a 100% PREVENTABLE disease, people, which that is my message, not how glamorous I look doing it!" Two days earlier, she elaborated on why she had written ''The naked Truth'', adding, "I wrote ''The Naked Truth'' because I wanted people to get the full story and not a sound bite or the one-hour preping speaking engagement. Most people can’t identify with who I am now because I am HIV-Positive but they can identify with who I was before. That is what makes me relate and shows people that I am just like them. This virus is real and just because you are ignorant or uneducated about HIV that does not make you immune. That is why I wrote ''The Naked Truth''. I can’t be everywhere but my story can."

2010 press conference

On September 23, 2010, Brown held a press conference at the City College of New York. She educated attendees on the dangers of unsafe sex and HIV, for which she was required to accommodate to a new lifestyle. She shared that her medications often cause her to experience side effects, and recalled having to take forty-two pills in one day. However, she stated her average intake is eight pills a day. She commented that her illness is like “having a baby” to her because there's no vacation while taking medication. She openly stated she had previously wished to die, but after surviving a car accident is glad to have been given a "second chance", and says she has found God, to whom she gives thanks every day for still being alive today.

Personal life

Brown continues to write and has dedicated her life to HIV/AIDS awareness. She has joked in the past that she will produce a sequel to ''The Naked Truth'' in the future, titled “The Naked Truth: Wife, Mother, and Still HIV Positive.”CUNY CCNY Press Conference on September 23, 2010 She lives in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, New York (state)">New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...