#cancer survivors

NOVEMBER 23 - CLARE BOWEN

Australian actress Clare Bowen - known for her role as Scarlett O'Connor on ABC’s Nashville - surprised fans this month with a new look, chopping off her long, wavy blond locks to debut a much shorter pixie cut. While Bowen, of course, isn’t the first woman in entertainment to get a major haircut, it’s the message that came along with her change that really mattered.

She explained in a November 11 Facebook post that she was diagnosed with end stage nephroblastoma as a child. Her parents were told she would only have two weeks to live if she didn’t undergo an experimental (and potentially deadly) treatment. She spent an extended period in the hospital, growing up around similar children who were “mostly bald, all tubed, taped, bandaged up and stitched back together”.

She reflected on her life as a survivor, writing that, “I look relatively normal on the outside, but on the inside, I am still the same stitched back together little creature, in a world where people are judged so harshly for the way they look.”

Then, she proceeded to explain what inspired her haircut:

“I was really inspired when I heard a story about a little girl who said she couldn’t be a princess because she didn’t have long hair, and I wanted her, and others like her to know that’s not what makes a princess, or a warrior, or a superhero. It’s not what makes you beautiful either. It’s your insides that count… even if you happen to be missing half of them.

“Every scar tells a story, every baldhead, every dark circle, every prosthetic limb, and every reflection in a mirror that you might not recognize anymore. Look deeper than skin, hair, nails, and lips. You are who you are in your bones. That is where you have the potential to shine the brightest from. It is where your true beautiful self lives.”

Bowen went on to thank ABC and Nashville series creator Callie Khouri for allowing her to change her character’s hair, concluding with the following statement - “Self-esteem takes a lot longer to grow back than hair.”

Photo credit: Joseph Llanes Photography