Hey, everyone!

I’ve decided to start a project – The Faces of Lymphedema Project – that will become a new feature on the site. I want to create a page that shows all of us celebrating our lives and not letting our medical condition get in the way of doing the things that we love. The most exciting part is that it will feature the real faces of lymphedema – all of you!!

I need my lovely lymphie readers to help make this happen by sending in some submissions for the page. Here’s what I would like from you:

• A picture of you – preferably of your face!
• A small blurb about yourself and the things you enjoy doing – please keep the lymphedema talk to a minimum!
• Another picture of you doing something you love or something you are proud of – be it a picture of you at dinner with your friends, a painting you did, or a beautiful cake you made… share it with us!

Too often we get so caught up in our lymphedema that we forget that there are so, so many other great things about our lives. We are more than this disease. We are more than our compression garments, and our embarrassment, and our discomfort. We are beautiful people who lead beautiful lives, so why not celebrate?!

Obviously, there is no pressure to share. If you would like to send text but no picture, that’s perfectly fine! Please share as much as you feel comfortable. Once I collect enough, I’ll launch the page – but I will continue to accept more submissions whenever they come in :)

Send your submissions to this email address: facesoflymphedema@gmail.com
I look forward to hearing from you!

xoxo Alexa

P.S. Here is an example of what I am looking for:

My name is Alexa, and I love to write. I want to someday write children’s books, but in the meantime I get my inspiration by volunteering at a local elementary school with children ages five through eleven. I absolutely love spending time with them! They’re the perfect little test market for book ideas, too.

I am a student in college right now, and I am finally starting to feel like my priorities are falling into place. In addition to this blog, I am working on building my writing portfolio (here) with both poetry and prose, as well as learning technical writing skills. I’m hoping to land an internship either this summer or the next where I can learn more about the writing and publishing industries, as well as getting more of my own work published.

Aside from writing, I really enjoy traveling. I love going to new places, and have been to eight different countries! Above is a photo of my twin sister and I in Auckland, New Zealand. We went there in 2008, along with Australia (my second time going there, her first) and Fiji. I hope to do a lot more traveling in my future! I feel that there is nothing like immersing yourself in a culture, and experiencing it firsthand. It would be great to someday make a living doing travel writing, or even move to another country and write my children’s books there, in a nice apartment in Europe or New Zealand.. perhaps with a pet cat.. :)