Female Beauty

Crowned Miss Delaware in June 2010, Kayla Martell, has been bald nearly ten years. Yet she hasn’t let that interrupt her dreams. Kayla, who began losing her hair at age 10, suffers from alopecia areata, an autoimmune disorder that attacks hair follicles and results in the loss of hair all over

 her body. The 22-year old beauty queen will compete in the Miss America pageant on January15 and try to prove that being bald doesn’t mean she is not beautiful – inside and out.

In 5th grade, Kayla noticed that her part was widening, and when the bald spot kept growing, she was diagnosed with alopecia. But she handled it with grace, even through the tough adolescent years. “For me, I was just very confident in myself because of the great family and friends that I have. And, you know, I think I was a better person because of the faith that I had. It didn’t make me nervous to go out without the wig for any reason,” Kayla said.

Usually Kayla does not even wear a wig, preferring to go thru her life bald as nature has made her. But she still wears a wig sometimes, as she feels more approachable that way.

She is certainly more approachable now, as Miss Delaware. And now she uses her crown to show that beauty is not defined simply by hair.

“I decided to use my crown to show that it is time we redefine what it really means to be beautiful,” ABC News quoted Martell as writing in an email. “To me, beauty is a part of your soul…You can be ‘beautiful’ on the outside and ‘ugly’ on the inside…But confidence and compassion are the real makeup of a beautiful person.”

Should she wear a wige and be “more approachable”? Or should we all learn to react to Kayla, and other people, without prejudice? Kayla makes her opinion clear on the question:

“I think I can be a better Miss Delaware and Miss America by taking the wig off, because it shows people the initial reaction that I am healthy and I’m fine. All we do is we lose our hair, right?” Kayla said.

“If I am crowned Miss America, it would be an opportunity to lead by example, redefine the ‘ideal’ and show young people that beauty really does come in all different packages.

“And even bald can be beautiful,” she added.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 8th, 2011 at 5:14 pm and is filed under Beauty, Career, Celebrity News, Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.