Antoinette Saldaña

Antoinette Saldaña grew up in El Segundo, California. Saldaña’s love for sports and soccer started at a very young age with her father playing professional soccer and her mother being an All-American soccer player in college. After playing two years at Santa Monica College, Antoinette transferred to California State University Dominguez Hills in Fall 2020.

Antoinette was diagnosed with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy at age 10, after her first seizure. Testing different medications, learning what epilepsy was with her family, and trying to attend Olympic camps was extremely difficult and frustrating for the competitive 10-year-old. Many people told her that it was simply impossible to continue soccer and a normal life growing up with epilepsy, but Antoinette knew this was not true. She persevered and with support from her sisters, parents, and medical team, she was lucky enough to find a medication that has been working for the last 5 years and still today.

She now has started a community over Instagram called “Optimistic Instead” (@optimistic_instead) where people with epilepsy and their loved ones can share stories, ask questions, and have a safe space to connect and talk about common struggles they are having during their journeys with epilepsy. She hopes to one day make Optimistic Instead into a non-profit organization and raise funds to help people with epilepsy.