Alopecia: Love your natural self - WAFB

SAN ANTONIO, Texas. (IVANHOE NEWSWIRE) - Whether you’re 60 or 30 or 14, we all know it’s hard being a teenager. In fact, 20 percent of all teenage girls say they are depressed. 20 percent of all kids, girls, and boys, say they have been bullied. This turmoil impacts a child’s education, socialization, and emotional well-being. That’s why one young woman is working to change the narrative.

She’s working to help kids love themselves. Saying the words “you are beautiful. You are capable.” and thinking these thoughts over and over again is what changed Sanah Jivani’s life after a very traumatic experience.

“I was 12 years old. I remember going to bed that night and I woke up, I found all of my hair on my pillow,” says Sanah Jivani, Founder & CEO of Love Your Natural Self.

Jivani had Alopecia, an autoimmune disorder that causes your hair to fall out without warning.

“I thought if they saw what I saw, they’re sure to hate me because I hate myself. I knew from that first day that I went to middle school with my wig on that my life was going to be different forever. I would find gum in my wig. I found a mean note in my locker titled 50 ways to go kill yourself. I realized that people are saying mean things to me. But the things that I’m saying to myself are far worse,” explained Jivani.

Jivani decided to change that voice in her head. “I realized that if I had said a hundred mean things about myself, it was going to take a thousand kind things to reverse that negativity.”

When she was ready, she revealed herself to her friends on social media.

“Then it hit me when you have the courage to be who you are, you unknowingly inspire other people to do the same.”

Jivani began with one day at her school that she called the International Day of Self-Love. Now, that day is celebrated in 150 school districts and 28 counties, impacting 50 thousand kids.

Jivani mentioned, “Teaching them how to acknowledge, you know, their own strengths and to be more aware of the messages they’re telling themselves.”

But you don’t have to wait until the teen years to teach self-love. Alexander Rodriquez works in his preschool class to do just that, and you can do the same.

“When a child comes in and they ask me like, ‘do you like my dress today?’ the first thing outta my mouth is, ‘do you like your dress today?’” said Alexander Rodriguez a preschool teacher.

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