Barbara Samson is a French poet who was infected with HIV at the age of seventeen. Her story was made into the French television film Being Seventeen .

Samson sought treatment for an eating disorder at the age of seventeen. While staying in a French health clinic, she fell in love with another patient who wrote love poems for her. She later discovered that the poems were translations of Jim Morrison's lyrics of The Doors' rock songs. Her lover didn't tell her that he was infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. So later she found herself infected with HIV.

Samson wrote an autobiography, On N'est Pas Serieux Quand On A Dix-sept Ans (Nobody Is Serious when They're Seventeen). The book became a bestseller in France and was translated into eight languages.

As of 2005, Barbara Samson lives and works in France. She visited Ohio University in the spring of 2003 to speak about living with HIV.