Whether you are bald by an autoimmune disease or by personal choice you are still fabulous. It is the quality of your character and soul that makes you YOU! And that is a beautiful person and special person. This is me and I have Alopecia. My name is Peyton. I am 12 years old and have alopecia. I was diagnosed in January of 2016, and by April of 2016 I lost all my hair. I enjoy basketball, riding my bike, hanging out with my friends, playing with my dog Finn, listening to country music, and bacon cheese burgers! Just because I don’t have hair it is not going to define who I am or stop me from what I love doing. Although my story is a short journey…my journey with Alopecia has just begun.

These are the words of a beautiful young girl I met last year while photographing her school portraits. At that time, Peyton had long gorgeous blond hair. Her mom and I are friends of Facebook and around February I started to see images of Peyton on Facebook and it seemed to me that she was losing her hair. I thought the worst…Cancer. I did not want to ask her mom Shannon what was happening because I did not feel it was my place.

Then 3 weeks ago on a Tuesday night I clicked over to Shannon’s Facebook page and her profile picture showed bracelets saying, “Someone I love has Alopecia.” I had heard of it but wasn’t quite sure what it was. So I immediately did about 2 hours of research on this autoimmune disease. I heard a voice tell me you have to do something for this very sweet girl. So I thought why not special person mini sessions and raise money to help children with Alopecia.

I called Shannon the next day to talk with her about Peyton and propose my idea. She was very touched and said to me, “You’re not going to believe this Catherine, but Peyton came to me just last night and asked if you could take professional pictures of her.”  Wow…I thought, “This is a God Moment!”

I have always been grateful for my talent of photographing people and have always asked God to use me in ways to bring joy to others through my images and to give him the glory. So Gods hand was in bringing Peyton and I together for her special photo session. As you go through the images you will see that she is just the most beautiful young lady.

I spoke with Peyton before our photo session and she shared with me her wish of bringing awareness of the terrible disease to others and to raise money to help children with Alopecia acquire wigs.

I am excited to announce Joyful Reflections Photography’s first Mini Session Fundraiser with 100% of the $25.00 session fee going directly to the non-profit organization “Children With Hair Loss”.