Teen with cancer isn't letting her bald head get in the way of her confidence

“Cancer doesn’t stop me from being a princess,” writes Andrea Sierra Salazar in a Twitter post that has been shared more than 200,000 times.

In it, the 17-year-old aspiring model posts four shots of herself posing in a garden wearing a robin’s egg blue gown and baring her hairless head. The young Texan was diagnosed with Stage 2 type 2 lymphoma earlier this year after doctors discovered a tumor on her collar bone and chest.

“Before chemotherapy I had always been a confident person,” she said, “so when my hair started to fall out I would look in the mirror and I wouldn’t feel that confident about myself,” Salazar tells Buzzfeed.

Hoping to boost her confidence, her mother encouraged her to have fun with wigs and began sharing photos with photographers and modeling agencies. Slowly, Salazar regained her confidence and eventually was ready to bare all without hiding behind a wig.

The teen caught the attention of photographer Gerardo Garmendia who encouraged her to pose for the shots that have since gone viral in an effort to inspire others to feel confident in their own skin.

“I didn’t feel confident enough to do a version without a wig,” she says, “but then I realized that I had no reason to be ashamed of the way I looked, I should be proud.”

Salazar is amazed with how widely spread the photos have been shared and hopes that they will spark confidence in others going through a similar experience.

“I see all these little girls, and you can see it in their faces that they lose all confidence in themselves,” she says.

“I want them to know that your hair or your physical attributes doesn’t define who you are – what really matters is your inner beauty, the way you treat others, and if you’re a kind person, that shows through.”

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