Louisville’s Diane Sawyer is making the media rounds promoting her special on eastern Kentucky, appearing this week with the gals on “The View” and a live interview on WHAS-TV.

The special, called “A Hidden America: Children of the Mountains” exposes the extreme poverty that has led to something called “Mountain Dew mouth,” a chronic dental condition that leads to the area’s reputation as America’s capital of toothlessness.  She outlines the career options for residents — working in fast-food, dealing drugs or working in the coal mines.

She tells stories of a football hero living in his truck, and a young woman struggling with a drug-addicted mother. But Sawyer finds the positive, according to this New York Daily News piece, quoted here:

I know the world, the vantage point we have in the world right now.Somehow, seeing the strength of these kids, in a way, renews your feeling that we’re made of very strong stuff. And I think sometimes too it’s great to not just look in at our own anxiety, but to look out at other people who are in much [tougher] situations than we.

The documentary airs on ABC Friday night at 10.