I am a freshman at a New Jersey State College. I enrolled in an acting course and I was given an assignment that really helped me open up about my condition. We were each given a poem and we had to write an essay about why we would have written that poem today. What would have inspired me to write this? The poem is called Phenomenal Women and after reading it a few times, I knew that writing about alopecia would be my best option. Here is the link:http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/phenomenal-woman/

And So I wrote this:
Phenomenal Woman

I see women everyday pulling at their clothes and their hair. They carry pounds of makeup in their bags and they find faults within every inch of themselves. To say that women have become prone to insecurities would be in my mind, an understatement, and I find it sad to see how much these women have neglected their true perfections. It doesn’t take much knowledge to point out a woman of low self-esteem, but I do find it easier because I am among this type of female. I don’t mean to meet the cliche of being insecure about how I look, but the depth behind that feeling is so much more than most would understand.
From your perspective, I’m sure each of you could name an insignificant feature about me that you’ve noticed. It could be that I have blue eyes or that I almost always wear jeans to class. Maybe it’s that I occasionally smell like cigarette smoke or that I’m always checking my phone. I do see one characteristic pop up more often than not, and that is my hair. It’s no coincidence that it never falls out of place, or that it seems to be perfectly straight. It will look identical to the day before and I’ll never have a bad hair day because it is fake. Now some of you may have already questioned that about me, while the rest of you may have never noticed. And I’m sure that it may not be as noticeable as I see it to be, but I guess thats just because I know my own body.
When I was three years old, I was diagnosed with Alopecia, which is a disease that causes hair loss. It wasn’t that bad when I was growing up and I can’t remember if it was because I was kid and wasn’t as self-conscious or if it was because I still had hair as a child. But I do remember taking a shower one day and just pulling handful after handful of hair off of my head until it was all gone. I was ten years old when I lost every strand of hair on my head and I’ve been wearing a wig for eight years. Now I know that there are far worse things in the world and who am I to say that my tragedy is more relevant than any of yours? And I know it may sounds silly but I envy your bad hair days, I envy unwanted curls when it begins to rain, and I wish it took me hours to get ready because I actually had to straighten my hair. I mean honestly, sometimes a girl’s best feature is her hair, and all I have to offer is colored synthetic strands.
When this event first happened, I’ll admit it took some getting used to. Fifth graders are nasty, they say whatever is on their mind and don’t even get me started on the difficulties of getting through high school. It’s easy for people to use your faults against you, thats why we hide them. We keep our insecurities locked away because it’s hard to hear someone else’s opinion of yourself when you have such negative ones formed already. If I don’t think positively about myself, then why should you? You don’t even know me, why do I deserve the benefit of the doubt? But then I read this poem, “Phenomenal Woman” and thought about how this pertains to my struggles and my adventures through life so far.
A few years ago, I would have never had the confidence to let you all know about this experience and this burden that I hold with me everyday. Even if one of you were to have confronted me about my hair, I most likely would have lied and told you that I just take really good care of myself. However, I have learned that I have much more to offer as a woman than just the cut and color of my hair. I know that there is more to me than what I look like. My beauty lies within my words, my passion, the way I walk and the complexity of my character. I have learned that my imperfections do not hold me back, but they add to the purities that make me, me. Now, years after the transition of my appearance, I find that having flaws has made me more of the norm than any of these idillic women that are constantly being praised for their perfection. So as I proudly walk around with this styled mop of plastic on my head, I find myself to be a woman phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, that’s me.

I had to read it aloud to the class and received a standing ovation from my classmates and my professor. I've never felt so good about something I've seen as such a flaw for years.