RU Junior shaves her head and raises over $4,500 for childhood cancer

A lot of you probably spent your Valentine’s Day with your significant other, or with a tub of ice cream coupled with bottles of wine. But I’m going to go out on a limb and say none of you spent it shaving your heads at the Livingston coffee house raising over $4500 for childhood cancer. Except for Katie Miller.

I had the opportunity to talk to Katie before and after the big shave. When her uncle passed away from cancer last summer, Katie knew she wanted to do something to make a difference that would heavily impact others in a positive way. So, she partnered up with St. Baldricks Foundation, a cancer research funding center, as a participant and volunteer. Katie initially set out to raise $2000, but eventually raised more than double that amount.

Just three days before the shave, Katie wasn’t even nervous. She felt extremely excited and ready. Her main concern was that her head would get cold. She said: “All I asked for for christmas were beanies. I got like 10 beanies. I’m not scared at all. I’m ready to embody the symbol I’ve been talking about for the last few months. I do know it’s going to be a challenge because I know I’m going to get looks, but that’s why I’m doing it, so I can tell people why and raise awareness.”

In order to prepare herself, Katie watched videos about girls who are bald and what kind of questions they get. But ultimately, she believes all women are beautiful and you don’t need hair to show that.

She told me: “People will obviously look at you differently. I’m a very confident person in myself and in my beauty so I think that’s going to radiate and hopefully that just tells everybody that you don’t need hair to be beautiful. And if people are going to say something, then fuck them, that’s on them. I’m just excited to do this and challenge myself everyday. I’m stoked. I’m so excited about it.”

Having all of her friends and family there was the most ideal scenario for Katie, and the pizza was just a bonus. She wanted the atmosphere to make people realize they could do something like this too for causes they believe in. After attending her event, I can definitely confirm that it was nothing short of incredibly inspirational.

“I think making it an event has added to people feeling like they can be apart of it without donating because I know a lot of college students that don’t have money and sometimes they don’t have the $5 to spare and that is totally OK.”

As if all this was not enough, Katie also plans to donate her hair after finding an organization that accepts hair that has been dyed.

“I found out that I can donate my hair even though I colored it a zillion times. A lot of places don’t take dyed hair, but this one place does accept it as long as it’s healthy, so I’ve been trying to take really good care of it.”

When I followed up with Katie after the big shave, I wasn’t surprised by how amazing she felt.

“I feel awesome after the big shave, like absolutely phenomenal! It was just filled with so much love and positivity that it was the best Valentine’s Day out there. I love that I fully embody being a symbol for all those effected by cancer now, and I can’t wait to continue spreading awareness! My head is a little cold but I wouldn’t trade being bald for the world!”

She also managed to double her original goal of $2000 a few short months ago, and raise more than her final goal of $4500.

“I also am so humbled to be able to not only reach my final goal of $4500 but surpass it and raise $4678! It’s such a cool feeling. I think bald is super beautiful and super badass!”

Photo by Aaron Lewis