S2E9 Alopecia Annie and How a Desire to Help Others Inspired her to Start an Online Support Group

Thank you so much for sharing your time with me and our guests today, Annie Foss and Finny the dog who has a starring role right around the 16 minute mark. Some of you may know her as Alopecia Annie. She started the Alopecia Totalis and Universalis support group on Facebook after being diagnosed with alopecia in 2017.  Although Annie considers herself just a "regular old gal," she is so much more, including "being an expert in her own experiences in life as an introverted empath." When I met Annie a few years ago, I could feel how important helping others was and continues to be for her. The challenges of running an online support group are many, and the way in which Annie began hers, so early in her alopecia journey, struck me as remarkable. Annie is from a family of nine - the 4th of seven kids, growing up in Kenmore, NY, a village on the north border of the city of Buffalo. She has two daughters, a step-daughter and grandson. She lived most of her life in western New York, except from mid-2016 through Dec 2019, during which she lived in North Dakota for two years, then South Dakota, before moving back to WNY.  She has worked in the business and education worlds, holding a masters degree in education but, primarily, in business.A little more from Annie: "On April 1, 2017, I woke up to find much of the hair from the back of my head on my pillow. Two months later there was so little left that, on June 3rd, my husband shaved what remained. By the first week of September, my eyebrows and eyelashes were gone too. My world was turned upside down! Living in ND, where there was no support, I turned to social media. In October of 2017, I decided to start my own support group on Facebook for others like me, who experienced complete scalp hair loss - those diagnosed with AT or AU. There are multiple auto-immune diseases among some of my siblings, including diabetes, alopecia areata and rheumatoid arthritis. I don't need or want it to be the biggest alopecia group on Facebook. Just someplace where we know we're not alone, can feel safe to express ourselves on both good days and bad; a place where we can uplift each other and be human, living our best lives with AT or AU." For those of you who would like to be part of  the private Alopecia Totalis and Universalis FB community, that link is in the show notes. Within the episode, Annie mentioned a group that inspired her, Your Beautiful Life by Alexa, along with my book, Head-On, Stories of Alopecia. Those links can also be found in the show notes. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1921540048058779/?ref=sharehttps://www.facebook.com/yourbeautifullifealexaortizhttps://www.instagram.com/yourbeautifullife/direct from me - https://www.headonpublishing.com/buy/  or from Amazon - https://amzn.to/3gEBfX2Support the showAlopecia Life provides free resources for school and home education, including a growing list of alopecia books, education videos on YouTube, links to support groups within the US, UK, Canada and more. You will also find access to Head-On, Stories of Alopecia, the Alopecia 101 free course, paid Alopecia Roadmap course for parents of children living with alopecia, and personalized coaching. Together, we can make a difference. To find out more, https://www.alopecialife.com/