Happy International Women's Day!!!

Today is International Women's Day, a day set aside to honor women, celebrate them, and celebrate their achievements! What a timely day to conclude my interview with Morgan Siem and Stacey Alexander. If you didn't get a chance to read my last post, check it out here. Morgan and Stacey are shaving their heads to raise money for children's cancer research. In honor of International Women's Day (and a new thing I am going to try to start doing on my blog), I thought that I would try to put the spotlight on women who are truly beautiful-- women that display inner and outer beauty! You can nominate women by emailing me (meredithstokkencc@gmail.com). I am honored to have Stacey and Morgan be the first two women that serve as true beauty role models. Their compassion for others, their determination and courage to do something tough, and their positive attitudes are all things that make them beautiful! If you didn't get a chance to check out the first part of my interview with these ladies, scroll down to my previous post or follow the link above. For more on ways that you can help them and to hear about their feelings on being bald and beautiful, continue reading below...

Me: I'm a girl, and I know how we girls feel about our hair :) Talk to me about how you two feel about being bald! Are you nervous?? Excited?? 

Stacey: We are both terrified of being bald. I’ve been known for my hair my whole life, since I was a baby and it stood straight up in the air. But we’re more than our hair, and we’re looking forward to overcoming this fear. If we can do this, what else can we do? I know that I go back and forth between excited and terrified. But I know I’ll be glad I did it. And as it grows out, I’ll finally get the chance to try all the funky stuff I’ve wanted to do with my hair but always been afraid to. Like a fauxhawk.

Morgan: Stacey nailed it. I go back and forth between terrified and excited, but I really think this will give me a sense of being able to take on anything! It’s quite empowering to get to a point where you realize that you can do anything – that the ONLY THING that has ever held me back in my entire life has been ME! It’s crazy to think about, but my only obstacle to doing great things in life has been myself and my own fears. So, by taking this on, I’m proving to myself that I can do anything I set my mind to. It’s exhilarating. I also feel like I’ll meet a whole new side of myself. I think I’ve hidden behind my hair for years and years, thinking that the way I look defines who I am. For me, having a good hair day was often enough to set my mood & my sense of confidence for the entire day, just like a bad hair day was enough to ruin my mood and self-confidence for a day. Now I get to redefine what’s makes me who I am. It’s not about how I look. It’s about the positive impact I can make on the world.

Me: What has this process impressed upon you about beauty? 

Stacey: I have met a lot of support and a lot of pushback in this process. You’d be surprised at how passionately people feel about the hair on someone else’s head. I know I’ll understand this a whole lot more on April 7^th, but we always tell each other that beauty is more than skin deep. Do we really believe it? I really believe it. I also believe that physical beauty is more than hair deep. I don’t think people are going to have to look past her bald head to think Morgan is beautiful. She just is. Her hair is only one part of it.

Morgan: Aw, Stacey, you’re amazing, and I think the same about you. The way I see it, there’s no way possible for someone to meet Stacey and not be struck with the obvious fact that she’s stunningly beautiful. Yes, she has beautiful hair, but she radiates beauty in a way that goes so far beyond her looks. This is a test for me to prove that beauty is within AND that beauty is not based on society’s definition of what a ‘normal’ girl should look like. I get to set the rules for myself of what makes me beautiful.

Me: How can people support you all in your efforts??

Stacey: We have a Media Two team page on the St. Baldrick's website. (http://www.stbaldricks.org/teams/mediatwo).  You can donate on that page. That’s the most important thing. Then you can help spread the word by sharing that link and our story.

Morgan: EVERY SINGLE BIT of support counts and means the world to us! We are trying to raise an astronomical amount of money and would LOVE donations, whatever amount you can do on our team page, http://www.stbaldricks.org/teams/mediatwo. Please consider donating, even if it’s only a few dollars! Also, a great thing to remember is that a lot of companies will match charitable gifts, so if you work for a company, you can ask them if they’ll donate as well. Most will say yes.

We are also incredibly thankful for people who can help spread the word. Readers would be soooo powerful if they’d each ask 5 people they know to help us out. Or, send a tweet about it and post it to Facebook. There are so many ways readers can help!

Another powerful way to help is to write comments on our blog post about what this means to you. It really helps us to keep the motivation up when we see what this means to people. Tell us what it means to you! Here’s the post:http://media2.me/bald.

Some other ways to help are if you have things that can be used for raffles. Maybe you know a company that can offer a gift card?

Finally, we’d looove to meet people in person if they’re in the Raleigh area. We’re hosting a fundraising event with awesome live music and raffles on March 12 at Isaac Hunter’s Oak City Tavern from 6pm-10pm. (follow this link for more info).