Words can be so hurtful and harmful, especially to children. We all have things in our life we can’t control but we can control how we respond to it. This Reddit User took the higher road and overcame a hurtful experience while learning to really love herself in the process.
“I have alopecia, which is when your hair falls out in random patches on your body. It got to the point that I had to shave my hair because I had bald spots on the top of my head.
Having a bald head as a little girl was tough. I opted out of wearing hats or a bandanna because I felt dumb covering it up when everyone could already tell I was bald. My grandma though would always force me to wear hats when I came over to her house. She would ALWAYS say stuff like ‘little girls aren’t supposed to look like that, cover up.’
It hurt, but I ignored it and put the hats on. I was super quiet as a kid and didn’t make a fuss.
For my ninth birthday, my grandma bought me three different kinds of hats. I remember sitting there wanting to cry the whole time after opening her gift, but I just sat there quietly.
Honestly, those three hats ruined my entire day. I felt so ugly.
I’m completely cut off from that side of my family, for the better obviously. She was abusive towards my mother as well and my mother was also not a good person to me herself. My oldest sister stepped up on mothering us when we moved in with my father when I was 15.
I still have bald spots right now actually and I couldn’t care less. I learned to love them without some stupid hat.”
