The character arc of Claire Wineland
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 10 April 1997 in Austin, Texas, with cystic fibrosis. Between then and her death sit a role in The Music Man at four, lungs that failed at thirteen, sixteen days in a medically induced coma with a one percent chance of survival, a foundation she started because of how her community had turned out for her, a book written with a friend, a TEDx talk and keynotes worldwide, a series of videos about what being ill is actually like, a double lung transplant on 26 August 2018 and a stroke a week later. The line below draws the whole story.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who was Claire Wineland?
One percent, sixteen days. She woke up and got to work.
She was born in Austin with cystic fibrosis, and she liked being on stage from the start: she was in The Music Man at four. At thirteen her lungs failed and she was put into a medically induced coma. She was given a one percent chance of survival. She woke up sixteen days later.
What struck her about it was not the odds. It was how much support her community had poured out while she was unconscious. So at thirteen she founded Claire Place Foundation, a registered non-profit for children with cystic fibrosis and their families. It runs a Support Families Network staffed by parent volunteers, and Extended Hospital Stay Grants for families whose child has been in hospital for fourteen consecutive days or more. Those grants have paid mortgages, rent and medical bills for people who would otherwise have lost their homes while their child was ill.
In 2012, at fifteen, she and her friend Chynna Bracha Levin published a book, Every Breath I Take, Surviving and Thriving with Cystic Fibrosis. She became a TEDx speaker, spoke at conferences worldwide, and was chosen to keynote the sixty third International Respiratory Convention. She appeared in Red Band Society and in the documentary series My Last Days, and sang as a soloist in the Philips Breathless Choir.
The videos were the heart of it. Her stated aim was to shed some light on what it is really like to be sick, and to change the way we view illness and those living with it. In August 2017 she published a video explaining that the production company behind her earlier project had, as she described it, locked her out of the accounts after she took a break for her health, that no contract had ever been signed over ownership, and that she had neither the energy nor the money to fight it in court. Then she started again under her own name, and made nine more videos.
She underwent a double lung transplant on 26 August 2018 and suffered a stroke shortly after the surgery. She died on 2 September 2018, aged twenty one. Her mother Melissa Yeager has run the foundation ever since, and has since been named Nonprofit Executive of the Year by the Los Angeles Business Journal. The film Five Feet Apart, which she consulted on, is dedicated to her.
The moments
Claire Wineland's timeline.
The 1990s
Born with cystic fibrosis
Setback, and it changed everything. The condition was there from the first day.
The 2000s
The Music Man at four
Everyday. Four years old, and already on a stage.
The 2010s
Her lungs fail
Setback, and it changed everything. One percent, and sixteen days of not knowing.
Recover, or build something
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: start the foundation, taken, or be a teenager. The foundation outlived her and still pays rent and mortgages for families whose children are in hospital.
She founds the foundation
Milestone, and it changed everything. Thirteen years old, and she started an institution.
Grants for long stays
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Rent and mortgages, paid while a child is in hospital.
Every Breath I Take
Milestone, and it changed everything. A book, at fifteen, with a friend.
The videos
Milestone, and it changed everything. Her own words for what she was trying to do.
TEDx, and the keynote
Milestone, and it changed her direction. The respiratory profession asked a patient to open its convention.
Seventeen Power Teens
Milestone. Three years of recognition, all before she was twenty.
Locked out of her own project
Setback, and it changed her direction. She said what had happened, and then started again.
She starts again
Milestone, and it changed everything. Nine more, under her own name, with the time she had.
A double lung transplant
Milestone, and it changed everything. The operation she had waited her whole life for.
She dies at twenty one
Setback, and it changed everything. One week after the transplant.
The foundation is still paying families rent while their children are in hospital, which is a very unglamorous way to change somebody life and it works. What she set moving is a body of work by a young woman who insisted that being ill was a thing you could talk about plainly, without either pity or bravery, and be listened to.
Your turn
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Hers was twenty one years long and she started an institution in the middle of it. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Claire Wineland: frequently asked questions
What people ask about her line.
What is Claire Wineland's character arc?
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Where does this timeline of Claire Wineland's life come from?
More character arcs
Lives that rhyme with her.
Sources
- Claire Wineland, English Wikipedia biography.
- Every Breath I Take, Surviving and Thriving with Cystic Fibrosis, 2012, with Chynna Bracha Levin.
- Her own video of 7 August 2017 about the production company, as summarised there.
- Claire, the YouTube Originals documentary released on the first anniversary of her death.