California Teen Does Her Senior Project on Alopecia

lindsay adamsLindsay Adams was a senior at Nevada Valley High School last May when she was invited to write as a special correspondent for TheUnion.com about her experience as an alopecian.  Here is a selection from her piece:

At a time in a child's life when "fitting in" is of utmost importance, and appearance is really that by which your peers judge you, losing your hair can be devastating.

When a person is just beginning to develop who they are and deciding what they want to be in life, losing hair seems like losing your identity.

What 12-year-old girl has the confidence and self-esteem to lose half the hair on her head and still "fit in" with the other kids at school?

Well, when I was a seventh-grade student at Seven Hills Middle School, all those feelings, concerns and challenges came into focus for me.

It was precisely at that time that I was diagnosed with Alopecia, an autoimmune disease that results in the loss of hair on the scalp and, for some people, the entire body......

I remember the exact day vividly. It was a warm day in September, and the seventh-grade girls' basketball team loaded into the school bus to head out and play a very important game against Weimar Hills. The team was a normal group of 12-year-olds. We listened to music, chatted about boys and discussed our teachers and school. Everyone seemed to be playing with each other's hair, trying to figure out the best hairdo for the big game. As a teammate started to put my hair into a pony-tail, she proclaimed, "Oh my gosh, Lindsay! What is wrong with you?"  (Read More)
 

Lindsay also decided to do her senior project on "Creating Awareness of Alopecia".  To that end she created a website with all sorts of information about alopecia.  Here is a small part of what Lindsay has to say about the 'emotional effects' of alopecia:

I’m sure I faced tougher times in my life, but I can’t exactly recall when it occurred.  The disease came on slowly.  In fact I didn’t even know what it was at first.  The hair started to disappear from the back of my head and people were beginning to ask questions.  All the time it was my little secret.  All the time it was my little struggle.

Quotation All the time it was my little secret.  All the time it was my little struggle. Quotation
  Sure my parents were worried; they cared about me and even offered to cut their hair to show their support.  However, the fact was that I faced the real possibility of losing all the hair that I had on my head.  What would I do? How would I look? Would I be teased at school? Would my friends desert me? These are all questions and concerns people have when first diagnosed with the disease called alopecia.  So it was through a season of my life I suffered this disease.  And although there are illnesses that are much worse, let there be no doubt this was a disease that would have a lasting effect on me and my life.  (Read More)


Click here if you would like to read the rest of Lindsay's article in The Union.

 

Click here if you would like to visit the site Lindsay made as a part of her senior project "Creating Awareness of Alopecia".

 

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