Natural Day
High school senior Sanah Jivani was first diagnosed with Alopecia at the age of three. As a result, she lost most of her hair in different areas of her head. By seventh grade all of her hair was gone. She was devastated by this and tried to cover her hair loss by wearing a wig. But soon enough her classmates found out and she quickly became the target of schoolyard and online bullies. Someone even created a "Sanah BurnPage" on Facebook. By the start of her freshmen year, she had had enough:
"A week before my freshman year began, I ditched my wig. My hands trembled as I posted a video on Facebook telling my story. I didn't know what to expect. At first, I honestly thought the world might end. I honestly thought my friends would stop being my friends and my relatives would be so ashamed that they wouldn't want to associate with me. I honestly thought what I was doing was dumb, but I did it anyway. I did it because I couldn't handle hiding who I was for a second longer. I did it because I wanted to share my story, even if my voice was shaking. I did it for me, and no one else. The moment I clicked 'post,' I was set free. Tears filled my eyes and panic filled my hearts moments afterwards, but I didn't regret it one bit. I knew that this was the first step to loving myself completely. I knew that this fifteen seconds of insane courage would change everything. Most importantly, I knew I no longer was going to hide, and a huge burden was suddenly lifted off my chest."
Sanah took this experience even farther by partnering with her best friend to start "Natural Day" at her school. They intentionally chose February 13th (the day before Valentines Day) to highlight the important of being able to "love yourself before you can love others." "Everybody has a 'wig' whether it is their hair, make-up, or something deeper than physical, such as a past story that haunts them. Natural Day is about letting go of all of that. It's about being free, and learning to love yourself the way I learned to love myself. And that's exactly what I wanted for the students of my high school." Today Natural Day is celebrated in schools all around the world!
A group of boys who i meet through my hall of residence have always had a thing against me, i appear to be outgoing, happy, confident and loud. I stand up for myself. What they didn't know is that I suffered from a mild depression from issues in my past. After constantly saying mean stuff and making mean gestures to me whenever they saw me or i came up in conversation they decided to make a Facebook group for a 'leaving party' for me, even though everybody new they did not like me. i am going on a unit exchange and they said this was for me and sarcastically talked about how sad they will be and how will they cope without me. Everybody knew it was a joke, they publicly humiliated me and expressed their hate for me. I was very very distressed and my confidence was and still is lowered. I was diagnosed with severe depression and have had suicidal thoughts which i am working on to get better. It has been a month and not one of them has apologized, my mother and father are furious and want me to go to the proctor of my university about it or the police but I am unsure if they could do anything about it. I thought when I got to university this would stop but it has gotten worse and I do not know what action I should take against them but I am scared that they will do it to someone weaker to me and this could be very, very bad.
19 year-old boy from NZ