“Bald is beautiful.”

In the space of a short visit with her family in Miami in October 2000, Sharon Blynn found out that the stomach pains she was feeling were not, in fact, caused by irritable bowel syndrome, but by a rare, non-invasive form of ovarian cancer, and that she would need surgery and chemotherapy.

Rather than return to her home in New York where she would have had to assemble another team of specialists and healers, Sharon decided to stay in Miami for what ended up being three years.

During her chemotherapy treatments, she remembers being, in her 20s, the youngest ovarian cancer patient in the room. She also remembers her twin sister sleeping in the chair beside her bed and the women with cancer who couldn't look at themselves in the mirror because of surgery or hair loss.

Sharon was inspired by her experience and the people she met throughout her journey to start a website, baldisbeautiful.org, which is all about helping women living with cancer feel beautiful, and she's been shaving her head ever since. "Through my Bald Is Beautiful work," she says, "I have found a new focus and purpose — a new level of joy."

Sharon credits cancer with giving her a deeper sense of who she is and the importance of a healthy mind-body-spirit lifestyle, as well as intensifying her desire to share that message with people. "Cancer brought me closer to feeling alive in every part of my life, from how I feel about myself, to how I feel about my relationships with my family and friends, and my relationship with the whole world around me."