Lesley Minervini

I'm from Littleton, Colorado, and attend Arizona State University in Tempe as a sophomore Landscape Architect student with a minor in Sustainability. Colorado will always be my home, but Arizona State is a unique and beautiful campus with a new atmosphere that I love! I'm very family-oriented, so I make sure to visit as much as possible.

I honestly never thought that I would find myself writing a book in my high school years. However, over the summer of 2010, I finished the whole first draft with my Co-author, Sara Davenport, and during the following summer, I edited and published it through Pylon Publishing.

This book is about an autoimmune hair loss disease I've had since the 7th grade, called Alopecia. It's a very rare and poorly researched disease, so getting out the awareness is important to me. Basically what happens is that my white blood cells, (which are supposed to attack dangerous elements in my body), start to attack my hair follicles instead, mistakenly thinking they are something foreign. When they do attack, it causes my hair to fall out unpredictably. I was first diagnosed with Alopecia Areata, meaning my hair fell out in small patches. Later, it developed into Alopecia Totalis, which is when I completely lost my hair. Since freshman year of high school, I have worn wigs and still do today! This book describes the various situations that I have experienced and struggled with because of Alopecia, but that I have also overcome. Each scenario made me stronger, and I finally look at Alopecia as a blessing rather than a disease. My purpose of sharing my personal story is to hopefully inspire those who experiece or have experienced Alopecia, cancer patients preparing for chemotherapy, and anybody else who battles with their own insecurity. My main goal is to have them realize that no matter what, you can find positives out of negatives, and it will always be okay.